Craigiehall, South Queensferry

Craigiehall is a Grade A listed house in South Queensferry, designed by William Bruce between 1695 and 1699, with Thomas Bachop as mason. The house is dated 1699 and work was completed around 1703 with the inclusion of a pavilion wing. The building has been significantly extended and altered over time: a 3-bay addition to the north was added circa 1830 by William Burn, adjoining a possible 1703 single-storey piend-roofed pavilion at the northeast corner. A further service block extension to the north was added by David Bryce in 1853, Robert Lorimer carried out mainly internal alterations in 1926, and further additions were made to the north from 1951. The 1853 and 20th century additions and extensions to the north are excluded from the listing.

The house is a 2-storey structure with a raised basement and attic, arranged on a 6-bay rectangular plan. It is built from polished ashlar sandstone with rusticated quoins and a channelled basement. The building features a base course, cill courses, and a dentilled cornice, with 3 flat-roofed bipartite dormer windows to the east and west elevations.

The east (principal) elevation features an advanced central pedimented 2-bay section displaying the date 1699 and a coat-of-arms in the tympanum, with a stone pineapple to its apex. A central flight of steps leads to an architraved entrance door at ground floor level, with a carved urn in a swagged roundel above, flanked by single windows. Moulded architraves frame the windows to the principal and upper storeys, with cornices to those on the principal floor. The advanced flat-roofed section to the far right, by William Burn, has a single window at each floor in the left reveal. An advanced low 2-storey piended-roof pavilion adjoins this section at the northwest corner.

The south elevation contains 4 bays with a central loggia at basement level, flanked by single windows on the outer bays. This supports a tripartite canted window with a wrought-iron balustrade above.

The west elevation has a projecting pedimented 2-bay central block with a coat-of-arms in the tympanum, the initials SCA and WEA, and the date 1699. A 3-bay bow dining-room extension is at the outer left.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case windows with small pane glazing patterns. The house has a 1953 platform roof with graded grey slates.

The interior, surveyed in 2016, retains some surviving 17th century decoration on the ground floor, though the majority of the original room layout has been reconstructed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The entrance hall features 17th century oak panelling with elaborately carved door architraves and oil landscape paintings above the doors, possibly by the 17th century Edinburgh artist James Norie. The wrought iron balustrade to the stair between ground and first floor has floral decoration and incorporates monograms of the 2nd Earl of Annandale and his wife, together with roses, thistles and tulips. A 17th century oak fire surround with decorative carving survives in a room to the west, and an early 20th century decorative timber fire surround by Robert Lorimer with stone inset is located in the room to the south. Panelled timber doors to the ground floor and decorative cornicing in the main public rooms are present throughout. The basement contains some vaulted corridors.