Tornaveen House, 1 Gillsland Road, Edinburgh

Tornaveen House is a large, ornate villa dating to circa 1875, designed by Robert Raeburn. It is situated at 1 Gillsland Road, Edinburgh, and is built of cream sandstone, with coursed and squared rubble masonry and ashlar dressings. The building has a complex, irregular plan, featuring an entrance tower and Renaissance detailing.

The north-east elevation, facing Gillsland Road, is three bays wide and incorporates a projecting, three-stage square ashlar entrance tower set in a re-entrant angle. The tower has chamfered corners that corbel to square at the first floor and base. The main entrance is round-arched, with a keystone, impost blocks, moulded pilasters, a consoled and corniced ashlar canopy, and a semi-circular fanlight above the door. A bipartite window is set to the left, with a stepped hoodmould. At the first stage of the tower, round-arched bipartite windows have bracketted cills, block capitals, and a decorated cornice with strapwork carving above each face. A string course rises to the cill course of the second stage, where tripartite windows are set with keystones and block capitals. The eaves feature a heavy, bracketted cornice, topped by a blocking course with ball-finialled dies. The roof is a banded fish-scale French pavilion, with decorative brattishing and narrow gablet timber lucarnes on each face, although the weathervane is now missing. A band course runs above the ground floor in the outer left bay; it includes an architraved, segmental-arched tripartite window at ground floor and an architraved, segmental-arched bipartite window at first floor. An advanced right bay has a two-stage projection, corbelled to square. A canted window occupies the ground floor, with chamfered arrises and a stepped hoodmould with an inset blank panel; a bipartite window sits above. A narrow blocking course with ball finials cap this projection, and a bipartite stone dormer above has a coped triangular gable and a ball finial.

The south-east elevation, facing Spylaw Road, is slightly advanced on the left with a two-story canted window. The ground floor window is round-arched with keystones and impost blocks, while the first-floor windows are architraved and segmental-arched. A bipartite stone dormer, similar to those on the north-east elevation, sits above. A slightly advanced segmental-arched tripartite window is at ground floor in the bay to the right, featuring a crenellated parapet. A band course runs above the ground floor.

The south-west elevation includes a single-story outbuilding to the left, with three single windows on the northwest side and two windows and a gabled dormer above on the southeast side. The main block has three first-floor windows to the left, with a round-arched ground floor window to the outer right bay, and a segmental-arched window above. A modern, single-story extension is centrally located.

The northwest (rear) elevation consists of a single-story outbuilding to the right with a lean-to roof, a dormer window above a modern door, and a single-story flat roofed addition.