Forthland House, 32 York Road, Edinburgh

Forthland House, dating to around 1860, is a tall, three-bay Tudor and Baronial style house, now adapted as an old people’s home. The building has two storeys and a basement to the front, and three storeys to the rear. A castellated four-stage tower, a turret in a re-entrant angle, and later two-storey extensions are also present. The exterior is constructed from stugged, squared, and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, featuring chamfered reveals to the windows.

The south (principal) elevation has a dividing band between the basement and ground floors. Steps lead to the centrally positioned entrance, which features a timber panelled door with a semicircular fanlight set within a painted, hoodmoulded, stop-chamfered Tudor-arched surround. A window to the first floor is located in a prominent surround, accentuated by a decorative cornice below and a stylised architrave above. The slightly advanced right bay is regularly fenestrated with a blind arrowslit window in the gable. The left bay is also regularly fenestrated, with a first-floor window breaking the eaves at the gablehead, incorporating a bracketed gable and a triangular motif.

The north (rear) elevation includes a narrow bay to the outer right with a ground floor window, and a corbelled out, three-stage turret with arrow-slit windows at each stage in the re-entrant angle. A four-stage tower projects from the penultimate bay to the left, incorporating a two-light window to the first stage and a door in the return. Single windows are present on each of the remaining floors. String courses run continuously with the turret between the second and third stages, and between the fourth stage and the crenellated parapet of the viewing platform. A two-storey projecting bay to the left has a crenellated parapet and a heraldic device above stone-mullioned three-light windows on the ground and first floors. A hoodmoulded stone-mullioned two-light window with a carved motif is positioned over the gable at the second floor. A modern extension wing is advanced to the left, with a further two-storey extension beyond.

The west elevation features an advanced, blank gabled bay to the right, and a tall two-light window with a stone mullion and transom in the gabled bay to the left.

Original eight-pane glazing is found in timber sash and case windows to the front, while replacement windows are present to the rear. The roof is covered in blue/grey slates, with stone skews featuring bracketed skewputts and finials to the gableheads. Decorative corniced stacks with octagonal cans are also present.

An arched gateway, twinned with that of number 34 Lomond House, is set within a high, ashlar-coped random rubble boundary wall. Squared sandstone wall with arched coping continues as the boundary wall.