Mortonhall House, Frogston Road East, Edinburgh

Mortonhall House is a large classical villa designed probably by John Baxter Junior in 1769, set on Frogston Road East in Edinburgh. The house underwent significant alterations around 1835, including the addition of a porch and service wing, possibly by David Bryce. The interior was remodelled around 1795, with later decorative work applied around 1840 by Thomas Bonnar of D R Hay & Co. The building is listed Grade A.

The house is constructed of three storeys over a basement in squared and coursed cream ashlar with polished ashlar dressings. Rusticated quoins rise from the first floor upwards, with a moulded base course, band course, and raised ashlar margins at the second floor. The ground floor is treated plainly with flush margins, whilst the first floor is built slightly recessed over the band course. Timber sash and case windows with 12-pane glazing patterns light the principal facades.

The northwest elevation presents the main front with an advanced, pedimented central bay containing the entrance. A later porch from around 1835 stands at ground floor level, approached by steps over the basement area. The porch is supported on an arch and features paired Greek Doric columns with a pediment. The original consoled doorway remains beneath, now fitted with a later timber panelled door. Ground floor windows flank the entrance, with half-height basement windows beside them. The first floor displays three taller windows, with triangular pediments to the outer examples and a rounded pediment to the central bay. The second floor contains three windows, with an oculus in a Gibbs surround lighting the attic in the pediment tympanum. Outer recessed bays contain windows at each floor, those at the first floor being taller and corniced.

The southeast elevation mirrors the treatment of the northwest elevation but with no access from the house onto the terrace. The outer first-floor windows are pedimented. The pediment features a blank panel, suggesting that sculpture was originally intended but never installed.

The southwest elevation contains five bays with five windows at each floor, the first-floor windows being taller than those below.

The northeast elevation mirrors the southwest elevation but incorporates two large twentieth-century dormers added to the attic. A flat-roofed service court, added around 1835, adjoins the main house. Originally a single storey adjoining the basement, it was later raised by one floor in pink sandstone to connect with the ground floor of the main house, with the link carried on an arch. The service court features an advanced central bay with a simple pediment to the northwest and a pedimented central bay to the northeast. A segmentally arched carriage opening at ground floor level, now glazed with French windows, provides access. The service court itself displays 8-pane glazing at ground floor and taller 12-pane sash and case windows at first-floor level. An ashlar blocking course runs between them.

The roof is covered in grey slates with a corniced ashlar stack.

The interior is accessed through a vestibule with a plasterwork ceiling, which leads to an unusual arrangement of two cantilevered staircases at the centre of the house. A rectangular service stair stands to the right, whilst the principal stair occupies a square well with a square cupola above. The cupola's soffit is decorated with gilded scrolled foliage. The principal stair features turned timber balusters and a moulded outer end to each step.

The principal rooms occupy the southeast portion of the house across three bays. The ground-floor dining room contains a black marble chimneypiece from around 1820. Above at first-floor level, the drawing room has been remodelled in the later eighteenth century with delicate Adam-style plasterwork. The ceiling is long and oval with a central rose of acanthus leaves surrounded by spreading corn ears and flowers, complemented by a frieze and cornice. A chandelier has been recently installed. Whilst the original chimneypiece has been lost, a large gilded pier glass with marble-topped gilded console table and gilded and ornately carved pelmet boxes remain. The shutters, doors, and dado panels are decorated with hand-painted pastoral scenes in gilt arabesques, created around 1840 by Thomas Bonnar of D R Hay & Co. The wall paintwork is not original.

The library occupies the second floor and retains its original coved ceiling and plasterwork. Eagles holding foliate sprays stand at the corners, with classical urns bearing foliate sprays positioned halfway along each wall. A heavy dentilled cornice completes the scheme. Two pedimented break-front bookcases stand between the windows, with tall bookcases on the opposite wall returning on the side walls and fitted with brass mesh doors. The woodwork is now painted white. A chimneypiece on the west wall is constructed of eighteenth-century white stone and features male and female caryatids carrying foliate capitals, a concave fluted cornice, and a scrolled foliate frieze. Grey marble slips and a modern grate complete the feature.

The setting includes a terraced garden with stone steps to the southeast and an arboretum to the west of the house, which contains mid-nineteenth-century planting alongside a stone fountain and stone statue plinths, though the statues themselves are now missing. A family burial ground with surviving memorials stands on a tree-planted mound to the east of the house, enclosed by a stone retaining wall.