Bankhead House, Johnsburn Road, Edinburgh

Bankhead House is a later 18th-century gabled house that was substantially enlarged and re-oriented around 1810 with a classical front addition. The house is two storeys high with a raised basement, and has a rectangular plan. The exterior is constructed of rubble with harl pointing, and features painted polished stone dressings, an eaves cornice, a band course, and rusticated quoins.

The north-east elevation has three symmetrical bays. A projecting stair section and platform overhang the basement area, leading to a centrally positioned door with a modern six-panelled flush door and a twelve-pane fanlight. Flanking the door are corniced tripartite windows. Three square windows are symmetrically disposed on the first floor. The raised basement is enclosed by cast-iron railings, steps, and a gate to the outer left, with a brick retaining wall. A door and flanking windows are located at ground level under the stairs.

The south-east elevation features four bays, with a two-bay gabled block to the left and a two-bay, piend-roofed gable to the right. Windows are symmetrically disposed on the gabled block, except for a narrow window at ground level on the outer right. The block to the right also has symmetrically disposed windows; the outer right window is blind, and there is a blank feature at basement level.

The north-west elevation presents three bays, with a blank bay to the outer left. An earlier gabled block is located on the outer right, with symmetrically disposed windows at ground and gablehead levels. A plain wooden and glass lean-to conservatory/porch adjoins the ground floor on the left. The block to the left is slightly advanced, with symmetrically disposed windows at ground and first floor levels on the right, and a blank feature on the outer left.

The south-west elevation displays a single-storey block with a raised basement on a sloping ground, to the outer right. A window is positioned to the outer left, a former door has been blocked and replaced with a small window at the centre, and a basement-level door is situated to the outer right.

The windows are mostly 12-pane sash and case, with a three-pane over six-pane configuration on the principal elevation. The front block has a grey slate piend roof, while the rear block has a gabled roof. Corniced ridge stacks are fitted with tall circular cans, and corniced apex stacks feature octagonal cans.

The interior of the house was not inspected in 1993.

A later 18th-century walled garden is located on a steep north-west to south-east facing slope to the west of the house. The garden is constructed of rubble with partial harling and ashlar slab coping, and polished stone margins, with curved corners on the north-west wall. Lean-to greenhouses are built on brick bases against the north-west wall. Outside the south-east wall, a stream is directed through an ashlar-lined channel.

A single-storey, rubble, gabled bothy is situated against the north-east wall, featuring a boarded window on the return side and a door to the right of the gable.

A small, single-span, swept bridge carries the avenue over a small burn. The bridge has low ashlar coped parapets with decorative cast-iron railings.

Octagonal cast-iron gatepiers support decorative gates.