55 Fountainhall Road, Edinburgh

55 Fountainhall Road in Edinburgh is a villa built in 1884 by John McLachlan. This two-storey, three-bay rectangular plan villa has an adjoining service wing to the east. The exterior is made of squared and snecked rubble, with lightly stugged ashlar and polished dressings on the north elevation, which faces the entrance. The building features base and dividing band courses, a cornice, and chamfered reveals.

The north elevation showcases a central round-arched doorpiece with a keystone, adorned with carved consoles and a cornice. Above the doorpiece is a blinded balustrade that serves as a mock balcony for a single window with a raised lugged surround. The entrance has a two-leaf panelled door and a plate glass fanlight. To the outer right, there is a canted window at ground floor level with a cornice and ashlar coping above, leading to a canted window with four segmental-arched lights on the first floor. On the outer left, an advanced corniced bipartite window is located at ground floor level, which leads to an advanced bipartite segmental-arched window on the first floor. The single-storey service wing attached to the east features a bipartite window at ground floor level and a bipartite segmental-arched dormer with a segmental-arched pediment above.

The east elevation of the service wing has a secondary entrance at ground floor level and a pedimented tripartite stair window with margin panes on the first floor of the main house. The west elevation includes a single window at ground floor level on the outer left and another at first floor level on the outer right, with a lean-to conservatory attached. The south elevation features a full-height canted window on the outer left and single windows in the remaining bays, with the service wing adjoining to the outer right.

The villa has plate glass sash and case windows, a grey slate piended roof with lead flashing, four shouldered and corniced stacks, moulded octagonal cans, wrought-iron brattishing and finial, and moulded eaves guttering.

The interior was not seen in 1990. The property is enclosed by a low saddleback boundary wall that rises to the east and west, with a pair of coped ashlar gatepiers featuring chamfered angles to the east. There is also a flat-roofed garage to the east.