The Old Sailor's Ark, 231 Canongate, Edinburgh

The Old Sailor's Ark, located at 231 Canongate, Edinburgh, is a four-story hostel built between 1934 and 1936 by Tarbolton & Ochterlony. The building incorporates 17th-century detailing and has a flat roof. It is constructed of rubble-jointed sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, featuring a base course and eaves course.

The principal southern elevation is five bays wide. A prominent, advanced four-story tower with curved corners is positioned on the outer left. The remainder of the elevation is symmetrical, with a centrally placed doorpiece at ground level. This doorpiece is flanked by pilasters, each featuring a wall-mounted metal decorative lamp. Above the doorway is a corniced lintel, a round-arched niche centered within the architrave, and a round-arched doorway itself, featuring a corniced frieze, a keystone motif, and a pair of sliding, studded vertically-boarded timber doors, leading to tripartite two-leaf glazed rectilinear-pattern inner doors with plate glass rectangular fanlights. Windows flank the doorpiece at ground level, and regular fenestration is present on the upper floors. The tower is blank at ground level and features decorative architraves on consoles, surmounted by in-swept pediments at the first and second floors, with windows on both floors. It is corbelled out between the second and third floors, with a round-arched window centered at the third floor. A single bay return to the east of the tower includes a bipartite window at ground level and regular fenestration above.

The western, or New Street, elevation is nine bays wide, situated on falling ground to the north, and divided into three and six bays. The three-bay section on the right features windows at ground level, with windows in the central and left bays at the first and second floors, and windows in all bays at the third floor. The remaining section of the elevation is recessed and built of red brick, featuring a timber door with an eight-pane rectangular fanlight, a small window to the left in the penultimate bay from the right, and bipartite windows in the remaining bays. A door is located in the outer left bay, with the outer right bay recessed and containing a window at ground level. The first-floor windows include a pair of windows in the outer right bay and three stylized two-story oriel windows corbelled out at the first floor, located in bays two, three, and four from the left, with windows on both floors. The second, third and fourth bays from the left are recessed at the fourth floor, featuring a central window flanked by pairs of windows.

The northern rear elevation was not visible in 1999. The obscured eastern elevation, facing the street, is a six-bay red brick block with irregular fenestration, mirroring the New Street block with three-story stylized oriel windows corbelled out on the first floor, in bays two, three, and four from the right, with windows on both floors.

The building primarily features multi-pane timber sash and case windows, with casement windows used on the New Street block. The flat roof was not visible in 1999. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present, including a hopper dated '1936'. The interior features contemporary rectilinear-pattern glazed doors.