1-4 Coinyie House Close, Edinburgh

The former Skinner's Hall, now comprising numbers 2 and 4 New Skinner's Close, is a three-storey and attic building dating back to 1643. It originally had an L-shaped plan, but has been extended to the south and west in the 19th century, resulting in a roughly T-plan configuration. The building is constructed of rubble with dressed stone details, featuring chamfered window arrises and long and short quoins. The east elevation and end gables are rendered.

A semi-octagonal stair tower with a roll-moulded, architraved doorway and cornice stands in the northwest re-entrant angle. A small splay is present at the west corner of the north gable. Single bays flank the stair tower, and pedimented dormers, one with a spherical finial, break the roofline.

A four-bay tenement block, built around 1800, adjoins the west side, characterized by a shallower roof pitch, a central wallhead gable, and a chimneystack at the apex of the west gable. Shouldered and pedimented dormers similarly project from the rear (courtyard) elevation. A further tenement block, built of squared and snecked rubble around 1850, adjoins the south side, also with a shallower roof pitch. This section features pedimented dormers at the third floor, a partially crow-stepped south gable, a broad end chimneystack, and a square advanced chimneystack in the southwest corner.

At the rear, a raised terrace is located, along with forestairs with iron railings connecting to a paved courtyard and former drying green accessible via 1 to 4 Coinyie House Close.

The building has predominantly 12- and 16-pane glazing within replacement timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered with graded grey Scottish slate, and end and wallhead gable chimneystacks of varying sizes are present, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.

The building was converted into flats around 1981. Internally, numbers 2 and 4 New Skinner's Close are understood to retain two 17th-century moulded fireplace surrounds on the first floor, and an 18th-century wooden chimneypiece decorated with urns and floral motifs.