Stable Court, Mortonhall House, Frogston Road East, Edinburgh

Stable Court, part of Mortonhall House on Frogston Road East in Edinburgh, was likely designed by John Baxter around 1769, built at the same time as the main house to the southwest. It is a large, classical, symmetrical, quadrangular former stable court with a former granary attached to the southeast. The construction is of squared and coursed rubble, with stugged ashlar pavilions and droved ashlar dressings and margins to the principal southwest elevation. The rear elevations are roughly squared and coursed rubble with stugged ashlar dressings. Most windows are timber sash and case, retaining a 12-pane glazing pattern.

The southwest elevation is single-storeyed and features a tall, segmental-arched pend that breaks the eaves, with a Doric columned blind portico in polished ashlar, a pediment, entablature, apex die, and weather-vane. Three tall windows flank the pend. Advanced, piended pavilions have rusticated quoins, and large basket arches, now glazed.

The southeast elevation has a doorway to the end pavilion with a bracketed doorpiece, a four-pane strip fanlight flanked by enlarged windows, and a single window at first floor. The range continues eastward, becoming two-storeyed with doors to offices at ground level and six windows at first floor, exhibiting a nine-pane glazing pattern.

The northeast elevation has been altered, featuring a segmental-arched pend, steps with a stone forestair, and some slit openings that have been blocked at first floor.

The northwest elevation has two windows to the pavilion return, and the range continues as a single-storey office with tall windows close under the eaves.

The courtyard itself is not symmetrical and has many openings that have been altered later. The pend opens onto the court in an advanced, gabled bay with two segmentally arched cart-shed openings to the left and a three-bay office to the right, including a central door and two windows. The northwest range has three doorways with six-pane lights over, and later window openings. The northeast elevation has two basket arches on the right, one leading through to another forming a rear exit.

The roof is covered in grey slates with corniced ashlar ridge stacks, and there are roof ventilators at the northwest corner.

The courtyard is paved with stone setts laid in a circular pattern around a central stone platform. A rubble wall with a pedestrian gate links the stables to the former granary.

The granary, probably built later, is recessed beside the principal stables elevation. It is two-storeyed, piended, and constructed from rubble with stugged ashlar dressings. It has small round openings at ground floor level and lobed ventilator slits to the former granary loft above. There is a door at ground floor and three windows at first floor at the rear.