Thirlestane, 2 Barnshot Road, Colinton, Edinburgh

Thirlestane is a two-storey and attic villa with a square plan, built in 1879 by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson. It is located at 2 Barnshot Road, Colinton, Edinburgh, and includes single-storey service annexes to the north side. The architecture is Arts and Crafts Gothic, featuring a canted bay window on the south side that rises to a piend-roofed balcony gazebo in the attic, and finialled piend-roofed dormers to the north and south. The main entrance is on the east side.

The villa is constructed from bull-faced snecked rubble with polished ashlar dressings. The east elevation features a square-panelled timber door within a chamfered, shoulder-arched opening, with a tripartite pointed-arched fanlight above, all contained within a pointed-arch, chamfered recess. There is a roll-moulded hoodmould with foliate ball stops. A small bipartite window sits to the right of the entrance, with a larger window above it. A shoulder-arched bipartite window is situated in the gable apex, also with a pointed-arch hoodmould and ball stops. A quatrefoil inset with a relief of a bird is flanked by circular insets with floret reliefs in the tympanum.

The south elevation is three bays wide, with a four-light stone mullioned canted bay rising to the balustraded balcony gazebo in the attic, which incorporates a three-light timber window. Bipartite windows are located at ground and first floor to the outer right, with a bipartite dormer above. The central bay has an irregular fenestration pattern.

The north elevation comprises an L-shaped, single-storey, piend-roofed scullery annex to the ground, with early 20th century flat-roofed extensions and a garage. Two mullioned bipartite windows are found at the first floor, with a single window to the right. Two bipartite dormers are situated in the attic.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with small-pane glazing above plate glass. The lower sashes of the larger windows on the south side have four panes, while the fanlight, the first floor of the canted bay to the south, and the bipartite windows to the north feature leaded glazing. Corniced gable-head stacks are topped with yellow clay cans, and the roof is covered in red tiles with ashlar coped skews.

The interior includes a tiled lobby with a glazed inner door, a stone staircase with decorative wrought-iron balusters and a mahogany handrail. Original fireplaces remain, featuring chamfered or roll-moulded stone insets and timber mantelpieces, along with timber panelled doors and some original door furniture.

The property is enclosed by a high, squared and snecked rubble coped boundary wall to the north, with pyramidal capped ashlar gate piers. A decorative wrought-iron gate is present on the east side, and wrought-iron railings run along a low coped snecked rubble boundary wall.