Gilmerton House

Gilmerton House

Gilmerton House is a three-storey, seven-bay classical mansion of approximately 1750, with significant additions designed by William Burn in 1829. The house is built of sandstone ashlar with cream ashlar dressings, rusticated quoins, base course, band course, eaves course and cornice. A two-storey wing extends to the north, incorporating an earlier house, and single-storey additions from 1829 form a courtyard at the rear.

The west elevation presents the principal façade, with three central bays advanced and closely grouped beneath a broken pediment featuring heraldic and ribbon ornament in red sandstone. Three dies with red decorative urns—possibly reused from an earlier building—crown the pediment. An advanced pilastered porch at the centre ground floor, added by Burn, contains an entablature and cornice with panelled double doors and a diamond-pane strip fanlight. Gibbsian windows flank the porch at ground level. Extended rustication of quoins and a band course between ground and principal floors emphasise the structural divisions. A consoled balcony with balustrade extends across three principal floor windows. Tall windows to each bay have lugged margins, pulvinated frieze and moulded cornice. Smaller windows light the second floor, also with lugged margins. Flanking recessed bays repeat this detailing.

The north elevation is more varied. The three-storey, two-bay north elevation of the main block to the right is built of roughly squared and coursed rubble with ashlar dressings. The adjoining two-storey wing to the left incorporates the earlier house and is constructed of random rubble with sandstone dressings across five bays. The first and fourth bays are advanced and canted; two irregular bays between contain tall windows. The advanced bay to the left dates from the 18th century and is faced in brick with light render and droved surrounds. Its ground floor acts as a buttress with ashlar cornice and contains three deep-set windows. A round-headed window lights the first floor, with impost blocks and keystone. A blind bull's eye window appears above. The later canted bay to the right, added by Burn in 1829, mirrors this form in squared and coursed rubble with stugged ashlar surrounds and ashlar quoins; French windows open to the ground floor. Two small pedimented gabled dormers to the attic flank the later canted bay.

The south elevation is three storeys and two bays for the main block. A later bowed bay at ground left contains a French window with flanking windows and a balcony with balustrade above. Taller windows light the principal floors, and two small piended-roofed dormers occupy the attic. A four-bay single-storey service wing recesses to the right, with an advanced pedimented gable at centre and six slit openings to the slightly lower former stable range flanking to the right.

The east elevation features irregular openings at the rear where single-storey 1829 additions form a stone-flagged courtyard incorporating former stables and dairy, with a separate range to the east.

Throughout the house, sash and case windows employ a 12-pane glazing pattern to the ground and principal floors, reducing to 9-pane on the second floor. Iron bars protect some ground floor windows at the rear. The roof is covered with grey slates swept to the eaves of a piend roof, with coped ashlar ridge stacks, some rendered.

The interior contains an outstanding mid-18th century music room in the north wing, incorporating the earlier canted bay. Probably originally the library, it features unpainted red pine panelling with excellent detail to doors, shutters and a broken pedimented niche. Paired Ionic columns flank the bays, and elaborately decorated pilasters frame the walls. A later ceiling displays Rococo swirls. A dog-legged staircase with naturalistic wrought-iron plant-ornamented balusters rises through the space. A cantilevered spiral service stair ascends from ground to second floor on the south side, with recessed panels to risers and some wooden barley-sugar twist balusters. The remainder of the interior was refashioned by Burn in a restrained manner. Extensive low ashlar-coped garden walls enclose the property, and a bridge over a walkway in the garden to the south is ornamented with urns.

A south lodge and gatepiers are listed separately. A Gothick-style screen wall between the house and home farm survives to the west. An eight-arched cartshed and granary, now converted to housing, stands nearby.

A house likely occupied the site from an early date; the Gilmerton Baronetcy was created in 1686. John Adam has been suggested as the architect, a proposal supported by similarities to Touch in Stirlingshire, which likewise combines a pedimented form with an earlier building incorporated within. The survival of unpainted panelling in the music room is notable, as is the brickwork facing the canted bay on the exterior. The use of red sandstone for ornamental work in the pediment and urns, rather than the contrasting stone employed for dressings elsewhere, suggests the reuse of decorative elements from an earlier house. The Kinlochs of Gilmerton improved nearby Athelstaneford village in the late 18th century by feuing land for building cottages, many of which retain their original character. The house appears on Blaeu's Lothians map of 1654 and is documented in planning records from the 1820s.