Drumearn, 16 Hermitage Drive, Edinburgh

Drumearn, 16 Hermitage Drive, Edinburgh

Drumearn is a substantial two-storey villa with attic storey, designed by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson and dated 1903. The building draws on Neo-Georgian and 17th-century architectural details. Single-storey service wings extend to the west. The walls are built of pink sandstone, coursed and squared rubble with pinning, with tooled dressings of red sandstone. An ashlar base course runs around the building; a cill band course marks the first floor level. The rear elevation features rounded reveals, and ashlar angle pilasters with moulded capitals appear throughout. Ashlar mullions are used for window surrounds. The building is finished with overhanging eaves supported on stone corbels and corniced chimney stacks.

The north front elevation displays five asymmetrical bays. At the centre-left stands a closed ashlar entrance porch with tall parapet and small windows on the returns. The doorway itself has an architraved frame with a Gibbsian surround, and the lintel carries carved fleuron and nailhead motifs. Above the door is a blank corniced panel with scroll-flanked cartouche bearing the date 1903 and the inscription "pax intrantibus salus exemptibus". The entrance door is two-leaf panelled and leads into a black and white marble vestibule. A single window at first-floor level sits directly above. To the centre and centre-right are bays with bipartite windows on both ground and first floors. The outer right bay is broad and advanced, crowned with a half-piend roof and containing bipartite windows positioned off-centre to the right. A tall narrow stair window rises to its left. The outer left bay is blank. Four rectangular timber dormers pierce the roof; three of these have bipartite glazing to the main slope.

The south rear elevation is more formally composed with five symmetrical bays. A secondary door with arched architrave stands at the centre; the archway bears a heraldic datestone. Above this, at first-floor level, a single window is placed directly over the entrance. A tripartite timber dormer with semi-circular pediment over the centre light sits on the roof above. The bays flanking the centre have single windows to both ground and first floors. The outer bays on either side are broad and advanced, topped with half-piend roofs. These incorporate full-height canted ashlar windows arranged in a 1-2-1 pattern.

The west elevation accommodates two single-storey piend-roofed service wings with piend roofs, containing single and tripartite windows. The main elevation to the west displays a shallow rectangular ashlar oriel to the left and a single window to the right. A broadly shouldered and stepped tall wallhead stack rises to the left, linked to the roof. A tall shouldered wallhead stack appears to the right. Two bipartite timber dormers cut into the slope.

The east elevation features an advanced canted bay to the right with a wallhead rising into a tall shouldered and stepped wallhead stack. At first-floor level, two single windows occupy the returns of the canted bay. Two tall stepped stair windows rise to the right.

Throughout the building, timber sash and case windows with small-pane glazing are used. Those on the rear elevation have six-pane upper sashes with plate glass glazing to the lower sashes. The roof is covered in deep green slate laid to piend form with sweeping eaves. Five chimney stacks project from wallhead and central roof positions (in addition to those already noted): three wallhead stacks and two central stacks.

The interior contains several fine features. The hall contains a projecting panelled and carved chimney breast topped with a dentilled semi-circular pediment. An open staircase with turned timber balustrade, plain timber pilasters and heraldic motif provides vertical circulation. The ground-floor dining room features a projecting panelled chimney breast with a plain moulded stone surround carrying heraldic motif and date. The first-floor drawing room has a coved ceiling with lattice plasterwork to the flat central section and a central cupola; the Gordon crest is worked into all coved faces and an egg and dart cornice runs around the perimeter. An inglenook fireplace with marble surround, wooden panelling and moulded pilasters is also present.

The boundary walls are of rubble construction. The rear and side walls are tall with semi-circular coping. The front wall is lower and features saddleback coping. Two ashlar gatepiers with tall moulded pyramidal coping flank the entrance.