The first record of Swanston village appears in 1214ad as part of the district of Redhall.  An agreement was struck between a farmer, called Svienn, and the local Anglian landowners, to work the land.  The spelling of Sveinn'ston was then changed over the centuries to finally end up as the modern documented Swanston.

The village of Swanston, about 600 feet above sea-level, grew up in the early eighteenth century around the farm and originally consisted of ten thatched cottages. The thatched cottages still remain but when renovated in about 1960 the outer walls were retained but the ten cottages were made into seven.

In 1761 Swanston Cottage was built. Robert Louis Stevenson's parents, Thomas and Margaret (neé Balfour) leased Swanston Cottage for a dozen years or so, for the period of their only son's late 'teens and twenties (1867 until 1880).

At the turn of the 20th century the stone cottages of New Swanston with their slated roofs were built on three sides round a grass area just across the burn from the old village.