Bavelaw Burn Bridge, Malleny House, Edinburgh

Malleny House is an early 18th century mansion of considerable architectural interest, incorporating a chimney from an earlier house dated 1589. The main building is two storeys with an attic, organised as a four-bay principal block with a single-storey wing to the northeast and a castellated kitchen wing to the southwest. The main block is harled with sandstone margins and dressings, featuring gabled dormerheads and crowstepped gables. The northeast wing is finished in stugged, coursed sandstone with polished margins and crowstepped gables.

The southeast elevation presents a four-bay, nearly symmetrical main block. The entrance doorway is positioned in the penultimate bay to the left, with a heavily carved pointed arch hoodmould with droved margin, an escutcheon in the tympanum, a boarded and studded outer door, and a Gothick inner half-glazed door. Windows are symmetrically disposed from ground to first floor in the outer left bay, with two widely spaced bays to the right of the doorway. The penultimate bay to the right has a near-symmetrical arrangement with two windows at ground level, the left of which is later. The outer right section has two ground-floor windows and a first-floor window with a dormerheaded window above.

An early 19th century three-bay single-storey bow-ended block, dating to circa 1820, is linked to the main house by a classical tripartite door featuring six panels with four-pane side lights and a radiating fanlight, above which runs a blocking course. The bow section comprises two bays to the outer right and a two-bay right return with a bow end to the outer right.

The service block forms an L-plan single-storey block, attached at the southwest corner and dating from the early 19th century, with a battlemented screen wall facing the entrance area. A Gothick entrance of two storeys features a blind upper pointed arch window, topped by a battlemented parapet with a bartizan at the left corner. A later 19th century grid gate to the left displays riveted thistle ironwork details. A coped rubble boundary wall bounds the left side, and a battlemented bay with a boarded opening is attached to the main house facing southeast.

The northwest elevation displays five asymmetrical bays. A single-storey bowed block projects to the outer left, with a single-storey kitchen block to the outer right. A full-height turnpike stair tower, positioned off-centre to the right, has small windows and a low, narrow door immediately to its right. Windows are symmetrically disposed in floors above, with a small window under the eaves and a window at ground level to the outer right. To the left of the tower stands a tall, coped rubble wallhead stack, with windows at ground and first-floor levels below. A two-bay gabled block to the left breaks the eaves, with a blank bay to the outer left. Piend-roofed dormers and rooflights are visible. A bowed block projects forward to the outer left, and a gabled block stands to the outer right with a centrally placed window.

Throughout the building, 12-pane sash and case windows are employed. The roof is covered with grey slate and features corniced ridges with apex stacks and thack stanes. Decorative floral cast iron ventilation grids are visible.

The interior is accessed through the circa 1820 entrance, which opens into a groin-vaulted vestibule with a stone stair and decorative cast-iron balusters. A bowed drawing room to the right at the front contains delicate plasterwork. The dining room behind features a simple cornice and a black marble fireplace. The stair of the early 19th century addition links with the main block at the first-floor passage. The main block contains interiors dating to circa 1740, featuring painted panelling and chimneypieces with overmantel classical paintings. A centrally placed oak-panelled room has a double lugged chimneypiece. The ground-floor kitchen to the left preserves an early 17th century fireplace; an armorial panel and a datestone inscribed 1589, originally from the entrance of the earlier house, are set into this fireplace.

A walled garden lies to the north of the house, surrounded on three sides by rubble walls with sandstone slab coping. A pagoda-like lych gate, designed by William Schomberg Scott for the National Trust for Scotland, stands at the centre of the east wall and dates to 1972. Greenhouses line the north wall of the garden. A gabled bothy, constructed from rubble with a slate roof and barred windows, straddles the west wall.

A yew hedge divides the garden along a northeast to southwest axis. Four yew trees stand to the northeast of the main front, both apparently dating from the early 17th century.

An ashlar baluster sundial, positioned to the northeast of the walled garden, bears a date of 1700 and includes gnomons.

Wrought-iron work throughout the garden was designed by Thomas Gibson-Carmichael in the later 19th century. A small gate with bird finials and a decorative two-leaf gate stand to the southeast of the house. Gates and railings to the right of the dovecot feature thistle and floral motifs.

The gatepiers are of ashlar with pyramidal caps, accompanied by decorative cast iron gates. A rusticated rubble sandstone bridge with ashlar saddleback coping carries the avenue over Bavelaw Burn.

Outbuildings comprising a cottage, cartshed, granary and stables date from the earlier to mid 19th century, with alterations undertaken between 1910 and 1939. These structures are built of rubble with polished sandstone margins and dressings. An L-plan block to the northeast of the house comprises a single-storey and attic cottage, with a cartshed, granary and single-storey cottage wing to the north.

The south elevation shows a three-bay cottage to the outer left, with a centred door flanked by symmetrical bays with gabled dormerheads. A five-bay stable, cartshed and granary block stands to the right. A two-leaf boarded cart door is immediately to the right of the cottage, followed by a boarded pedestrian door, a central window, two basket-arched cart entrances to the outer right, and small granary windows under the eaves.

The west elevation comprises a rectangular-plan cottage wing of painted rubble with blocked openings and windows of varying sizes.

The north elevation presents a low rear wall of the stable and granary block with a very steep slated roof pierced by rooflights. A boarded door breaks the eaves off-centre to the left, with further rooflights visible. A barn entrance is recessed to the right, with a tall modern gabled lean-to barn projecting in front.

These outbuildings feature 12-pane sash and case windows and a grey slate roof with ashlar coping to the skews.