Blackford Mount And Gatepiers, 20 Mortonhall Road, Edinburgh

Blackford Mount and the gatepiers, located at 20 Mortonhall Road in Edinburgh, were built around 1890. This two-storey, four-bay villa features a rectangular plan and is subdivided. The exterior is made of squared and snecked sandstone with cream coursed ashlar, including a base course, dividing bad course, cornice, architraved windows, bracketed cills, and channelled quoins.

On the south elevation facing Mortonhall Road, there is a round-arched doorway in the second bay from the left, flanked by pilasters. The doorway has carved consoles supporting the cornice and a piended stone parapet that forms a mock window guard over a single window on the first floor. The entrance includes a tripartite door with a plate glass fanlight above. To the outer left, there is a full-height, four-light canted window in an advanced pavilion bay, while the outer right features tripartite windows in a similar pavilion bay. The third bay contains single windows, and round-arched dormers are set above each bay.

The north rear elevation has three bays and includes a double piend-roofed single-storey service wing on the right. To the outer left, there is a small piend-roofed range of sheds. The first and second bays have single windows, while the third bay features a Venetian stair window. The windows are plate glass sash and case, and the roof is covered with grey slate, featuring a shouldered and corniced wallhead and corniced ridge stacks.

The interiors, partially seen in 1990, showcase highly decorative plasterwork, a timber fireplace, a panelled dado, and a stained glass stair window.

The gatepiers and boundary walls consist of two polished ashlar gatepiers with chamfered angles, cornices, and ball-finials, along with high coped mutual and boundary walls.