1, 3 Gayfield Square, Edinburgh

1 and 3 Gayfield Square is a classical, near-symmetrical villa built between 1790 and 1800. This detached building features four bays and is two stories high with an attic, along with an early 20th-century extension at the rear. The exterior is constructed of droved ashlar with polished quoins and cills, while the northwest side is made of snecked rubble with droved quoins, and the rear is harled with stugged quoins and polished cills. The villa has a base course and an eaves cornice, with long and short quoins raised on the principal elevation. The fenestration is predominantly regular.

On the northeast (principal) elevation, there is a timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight located in the inner left bay. To the outer left and right, there are two later curved slate-hung dormers on the roof.

The southwest (rear) elevation has five bays and features a full-width, two-story extension with a three-story bowed projection at the center. There are flanking bows on the right and left, along with a timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight and a small open flat roof porch. The outer left bay has bipartite windows, and there are two curved dormers on the roof at the outer left and right.

The glazing includes 12-pane timber sash and case windows on the front elevation and all dormers, while the rear features 4-pane timber sash and case windows. The dormers have grey slate haffits and piend roofs, and there are two rooflights on the principal elevation. The pitched roof, which forms a catslide at the rear, is covered with graded grey slate and features stone skews and skewputts. There is one corniced, rendered gablehead stack with circular and octagonal cans on the northwest gable, and one corniced, rendered gable-end stack with circular cans on the southeast gable.

The property is enclosed by a boundary wall with a rendered finish and droved coping, topped with spear-head and urn finialled cast-iron railings. The gatepiers are made of painted, tooled ashlar with pyramidal caps, with a pair at the center and single piers at the outer left and right corners.