The Tor, Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh

The Tor is a neo-Jacobean mansion house, likely designed by John Chesser and built in 1866, originally conceived as a U-shaped structure in the style of William Burn. Various additions and alterations were made throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The house is constructed of coursed, polished sandstone with polished dressings, featuring a base course, cornices to canted and advanced bays, buckle quoined angles, chamfered window surrounds, skews, and skewputts.

The south (front) elevation originally comprised five bays, with a single additional bay added to the west. The original end bays – the eastern bay and the penultimate bay to the west – are advanced, each with a curvilinear-shaped gable and a two-storey, three-light canted bay. An advanced single-storey section sits between these bays, featuring an open porch to the left with stop-chamfered arrises, strapwork corbel features, and a balustraded parapet flanked by ball finials. To the right is a five-light rectangular bay with mullioned and transomed windows, topped with a parapet raised at its ends and centre. Dormer windows with shaped gables are situated above three bays, while a mullioned tripartite window is located in the advanced bay of the western addition, and a bipartite dormer with a finialled, shaped gable is above the first floor.

The windows are timber-framed sash and case, with a grey slate roof, squat ridge stacks, and painted cast-iron rainwater goods.

The west (side) and north (rear) elevations retain a gabled and finialled bay at the centre of the west side, a survival from the original design. A single bay addition was added around 1900 to the front, and further additions were made to the rear in 1928 (a kitchen wing to the northeast) and 1948 (further alterations and additions).

The interior largely retains the historicist baronial-style decorative scheme implemented around 1896–1900. Elaborate oak panelling, staircase details, chimneypieces, and pedimented doorcases are complemented by original leaded glass, including a notable stained glass window from 1896. The entrance hall features a parquet floor, while the porch has terrazzo paving. The dining room remains uniquely intact, with a bolection-moulded oak chimneypiece adorned with a bay-leaf garland, panelled doors, and fitted presses and buffets. A rare survival is the embossed and gilded Tynecastle wallcovering, used on the ceilings of the hall and sitting room to simulate plasterwork.

A lodge, built in 1866 with alterations around 1900, stands nearby. It is a single-storey neo-Jacobean L-plan building with corniced gables featuring kneelers and finials to the south and an advanced bay to the northwest. A porch addition with a cast-iron lintel is located at the re-entrant angle on the west. The lodge is constructed of squared and snecked rubble.

Gate piers, boundary walls, and railings are also original features, with chunky ball finials on the corniced sandstone ashlar gate piers. An ornate cast-iron railing sits above a low, saddle-back wall adjoining the eastern gate pier, while a stepped wall leads up the driveway from the western gate pier.