Edinburgh Thistle Clubhouse, 29 Braid Hills Approach, Edinburgh

Former clubhouse (left of gateway) built 1897 and designed by the City Architects Department, probably James A Williamson, Deputy City Architect, under Robert Morham, City Architect. It is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular plan symmetrical Arts and Crafts former entrance lodge and golfers' shelter incorporating houses for park officer and greenkeeper to left and right of main public areas. It is situated on rising ground at the east end of the Braid Hills golf course with panoramic view over the city of Edinburgh.

Pebble-dashed with polished red ashlar sandstone dressings and details, battered base course and cill course. The roof has a deep overhang and exposed rafter ends, swept over open veranda supported by timber posts. There are mock-castellated curved towers to each side.

Steps with curved approach walls to entrance through veranda. Two timber and glazed two-leaf doors and timber windows the full width of veranda. Timber entrance doors to houses (originally for golf professional and greenkeeper) on side elevations with serpentine, roll-moulded architraves. Sash and case windows with small pane glazing in upper sash at ground floor and small pane glazing in casement windows at first floor. Red-tiled roof, chimneystacks slightly tapered at apex with red clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

Interior includes panelled timber doors and plain plaster cornices. There is a timber chimneypiece and timber-boarded dado to the central golfers' room. Curved press doors in upper floor rooms of houses and cast-iron chimneypieces (seen in 2012).

Thistle Clubhouse (right of gateway) opened 13 July 1933 and designed by the City Architects Department, Alexander Garden Forgie as Deputy City Architect, assisted by Tom Smith, under Ebenezer MacRae, City Architect. It is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular plan Arts and Crafts clubhouse situated on sloping ground designed to match the style and materials of the 1897 clubhouse. It is constructed in pebble-dashed brick with red ashlar sandstone dressings and details and a deep red, squared rubble sandstone base course. There is a starters' box at ground floor to right of entrance.

Front elevation with steps to partly enclosed lobby area, balcony above with wrought-iron balusters between piers rising from ground level. Later addition of exterior flights of steps on east elevation. Entrance through lobby with two-leaf timber and glazed doors, and windows to right and left. The swept roof has a canted bay to the south with a view over city.

The windows have a 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and cash frames and a 15-pane glazing pattern in the lobby windows, some are built of non-traditional materials. The interior, seen in 2012, has some timber lined rooms and panelled doors.