Halkerston, Inveresk Village Road, Inveresk

Halkerston is an unusual house, dating to approximately 1640 and restored in 1960 by W. Schomberg Scott. It is a square-planned house with a pyramidal roof, and is two storeys and an attic in height, with a basement to the west, built on a sloping site. The first-floor windows break the eaves in swept dormerheads. The exterior is finished with sand-coloured harling, although regrettable cement margins are present.

The north-east elevation has four bays; the doorway is slightly off-centre to the right, with a 19th-century roll-moulded and corniced surround, leading to a two-leaf panelled door and a flush panelled inner door. A stair bay is centrally placed, breaking the eaves with a gabled crowstepped stairhead and windows. There are two windows to the bays to the left of the centre on each floor, and a single window to the outer right on the first floor. The south-west elevation features two paired bays of closely grouped windows, with windows to the basement, ground, and first floors, and to former mural closets at ground and first floor. A basement window to the left of the centre has been altered into a door. The south-east elevation has a ground-floor lean-to addition with a door and windows to the north-east flank, four windows to the south-east, and two grouped closely to the south-west, echoing the design of the main elevation. A broad, shouldered wallhead stack is present. The north-west elevation has two ground floor and first-floor windows to the left, and a further small window to a former mural closet at first floor to the outer right. Another broad, shouldered wallhead stack is present. Small-pane glazing is used in sash and case windows. The roof is covered in grey slates, with dormerheads and swept dormers also slate-covered. Harled wallhead and apex stacks adorn the roof.

The interior has been largely altered, but the stone vaulted basement has been retained, containing a kitchen recess. A stone newel stair is present. Chamfered reveals to the ashlar door jambs are found at the first floor, along with stone corbels at the first and attic floors. Remaining features include some bolection-moulded chimney pieces and 18th-century panelling.

A possible 17th-century stable, currently serving as a garden shed (as of 1989), abuts a boundary wall and cottage at Inveresk Lodge to the south-east. It has a rectangular plan with sand-coloured harling, crowstepped gables with beak skewputts, a door to the south-west, a blocked window to the north-west, and an end stack. Original timber stall divisions and hay-hecks are retained within the interior.

Several decorative cast-iron lamp standards with gilded detail are set within the gardens, one dated 1900. A 17th-century sandstone terrace and retaining walls, with harl-pointing, are present, as are stone steps with an ashlar coped balustrade, ball finials, and red brick buttresses. A simple wrought-iron overthrow marks the entrance drive.