Dovecot, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 22 January 1971. Garden house, dovecot.

Dovecot, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
dusk-corridor-equinox
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh West MP: Christine Jardine (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
22 January 1971
Type
Garden house, dovecot
OS grid reference
NT 135 709
Coordinates
55.9238, -3.38546
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Dovecot at Ratho Hall, Edinburgh, is an early 19th-century circular garden house that has been converted into a dovecot. It is constructed from random rubble whinstone, featuring stugged sandstone dressings and whinstone pinnings. The structure is built into a higher ridge of ground on the north side and has a battered base. The main façade faces south towards the garden wall, featuring a narrow door at ground level and a large pointed arch window above. This window has a roll-moulded surround but is blocked with rubble whinstone at the lower level. There are wooden flight-holes at the center of the window and it is boarded at the upper level. A boarded door on the north side has a wooden lintel. The narrow pointed windows have stugged sandstone lintels and cills, with fixed timber cases.

A sandstone corbel course supports the battlemented parapet, which is topped with sandstone coping. There are metal reinforcing bands around the upper level of the dovecot and the battlement.

Inside, the dovecot is roofless and has a rendered interior that is in fairly poor condition.

Local climate

Dovecot, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 990 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 58% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 49 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Stables, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh Grade A 31 m
  2. Walled Garden, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh Grade A 33 m
  3. Ratho Hall, Edinburgh Grade A 124 m
  4. Kirkton Farm, Ratho Grade B 261 m
  5. Ratho Burial Ground, Edinburgh Grade A 329 m
  6. Ratho Parish Church And Lady's Well, Baird Road, Ratho Grade A 332 m
  7. Gate Lodge, Ratho Hall, Edinburgh Grade B 335 m
  8. War Memorial, Baird Road, Ratho Grade B 350 m
  9. West End Cottage, 2 Wilkieston Road, Ratho Grade C 351 m
  10. Hawthorn Cottage, 81 Main Street, Ratho Grade C 384 m