Ashley House, Ratho

Ashley House is an earlier 19th-century villa with later 19th-century additions and alterations, and reconstruction work carried out by Dunn & Findlay in 1920. It is a 2-storey building with a raised basement, originally 3 bays wide, with a 2-storey, 2-bay recessed addition to the left and a single-storey classical orangery to the right. The building has a rectangular footprint.

The exterior is constructed of stugged ashlar sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, and an ashlar basement. A band course separates the basement from the upper floors, and a fluted eaves frieze runs along the top. Raised quoins mark the corners. The front (south) elevation originally presented a symmetrical facade overlooking a terraced garden. The central entrance is approached by a curved perron stair and a portico supported by Ionic columns and answered by Ionic pilasters; the entrance itself is a tripartite doorpiece within a segmental-arch, featuring a blinded fanlight and sidelights. Flanking the central bay are 2-storey bowed window additions that extend from the basement to the ground floor. Windows are regularly spaced on the first floor, and all feature wrought-iron window guards. A patera detail sits in the frieze above the central window. To the left is a later 19th-century, 2-storey, 2-bay block with a base course and balustraded parapet. A tripartite door, with an upper glazed section and a sunburst fanlight, is located on the ground floor to the right. Above this door is a window with a projecting square balcony featuring elaborate cast-ironwork. A bowed window with a balustraded parapet is on the ground floor to the left, directly above which is a tripartite window. An orangery with a classical design adjoins the main house to the right.

The orangery itself is a 5-bay by 3-bay arcaded ashlar structure. It has an ashlar base course and 5 glazed bays on the south side, divided by plain pilasters with twin pilasters marking the corners. The main entrance is on the east elevation, which is symmetrical with a 3-bay design; it features a door at the centre approached by a perron stair, flanked by windows, and pilaster bays, with twin pilasters at the corners. The glazing follows a fixed-arch continental pattern.

The west elevation has a bowed window at centre ground, and a balustraded parapet flanking curved shoulders of a corniced wallhead stack at the centre.

The north (rear) elevation is asymmetrical and incorporates a rendered block with sandstone margins and a balustrade to the right and left of a single-storey, projecting service block.

The bowed windows have plate glass sash and case glazing, while the first-floor windows are casement windows. The roof is a piend and platformed grey slate roof, with coped gablehead stacks and octagonal cans.

The interior was not inspected in June 1992.