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I lived at Harvieston House from 1973 to 1976. The owner was Tom Mitchell who rescued the house from falling down in the early 1970's. He used to drive past when Harvieston was derelict, with cattle wandering in and out of the rooms and was determined to save it. He divided the house into flats which were all unique and personally vetted all the occupants. He was a Cumbrian farmer who lived at Calva farm near Workington.He was very involved in Rugby being the chairman of Workington RLFC for many years. Other than that he was a bit of a mystery man, he helped found the off-beat Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and had connections with the Foreign Office as he travelled abroad a lot. He also had properties in Malta and Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus which he lost when the Turks invaded in 1974!
He had a wonderful collection of vintage cars and was a real character. A book has been written about his life called "The Memoirs and Sporting life of Tom Mitchell" Here is the link to see a picture of him -http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif If it doesn't work google him on Amazon. I can't find any mention of Harvieston in it so I think it must have been a private "bolt hole"