35 Mortonhall Road, Edinburgh

A Scottish 17th-century style villa, built in 1898 by the architect John Kinross of Kinross and Tarbolton, is situated on a steeply sloping site at 35 Mortonhall Road, Edinburgh. The house is two storeys high with a basement, and comprises three bays. A single-storey and partially basement service block extends to the northeast. The exterior is constructed from raked rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings. Windows are surrounded by roll-moulded detailing, stop-chamfered at the cills, and are generously proportioned, particularly on the south elevation. Principal gables are crowstepped, featuring beak skewputts. The first-floor windows break the eaves within gabled dormerheads.

The north elevation has a recessed gabled bay to the left and two bays to the right. A central door is framed by a roll-moulded surround, with a blank heraldic panel positioned above. A secondary door, originally a window, was created on the return to the left shortly after completion. A broad window flanks the door to the right, and first-floor windows break the eaves. A recessed bay with a pedimented window at ground level is present, alongside a blank panel and stack at the re-entrant angle. A gable of the single-storey service block is blank on the outer right.

On the south elevation, a full-height advanced bay is situated to the right, corbelled to a square shape at the first-floor gablehead and chamfered to the left. French windows lead to the basement, with a carved keystone. A heraldic panel is positioned above a broad, corniced window on the principal floor, which is flanked by a window set on a splay to the left. A first-floor window sits within the gablehead. A later decorative wrought-iron forestair leads to a window of the principal floor which has been altered to a French window; a blank panel is located above the first-floor window. A basement window and a larger ground-floor window are found in the advanced bay, featuring an ashlar pentice roof.

The west elevation is three bays wide and features a central M-gabled bridging with ashlar gablet coping. The service block gable is on the outer left, single-storey with a basement, and incorporates an oculus at the first-floor level above the main gable. Windows are present on each floor at the centre, with the largest on the principal floor, and a first-floor window is located within a corbelled ashlar panel to the outer right gablehead.

The east elevation features paired windows to the basement and three gabled dormerhead windows on the first floor, to the centre and right, with ashlar thistle and fleur-de-lys finials. The windows are sash and case, with small and multi-pane glazing patterns. Roofing is Westmoreland slates with ashlar ridge tiles. Moulded coping is found to the gableheads and wallhead stacks. A gabled attic dormer with bargeboards is visible to the west.

The interior retains fine original decoration, notably joinery work by Scott Morton and Co, cabinetmakers, and decorative plasterwork cornices and ceiling detailing. Built-in cupboards and display cabinets, including shell-headed niches, are present, as well as well-crafted oak dressers in the pantry. A first-floor subdivision was reversed when the property was reunited. Original boundary walls, steps, gates, gate piers, and railings are all present. The boundary walls are of coursed sandstone rubble with saddleback ashlar coping; panelled dies with moulded coping and ball finials are also present. Ashlar steps lead to the side elevations. Panelled ashlar corniced piers support wrought-iron railings and gates at the entrance elevation, the latter being the work of Thomas Hadden.