The Bear Gates at the main entrance were installed by the fifth Earl of Traquair, Charles Stuart, in 1738, with the stone bears added in 1745. The official account is that the gates were sealed in 1796 on the death of the Countess of Traquair, with the seventh Earl pledging to keep them shut.
A more romantic version says the Earl promised, after Bonnie Prince Charlie left by them in 1745, that they would stay closed until a Stuart king returned to the throne. The Wikipedia article calls this version impossible, since the closure came half a century later. Visitors are still told the story. Mary, Queen of Scots visited the house in 1566.
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