The Birks, 49 Eskbank Road, Dalkeith

The Birks is a villa built in the later 19th century, featuring two stories and three bays. The west and north elevations are finely finished with stugged ashlar, while the other sides are constructed from rubble with ashlar dressings. The building has a base course, an eaves course, a cornice, and a felted blocking course on the west side. It is adorned with raised long and short quoins and stop-chamfered reveals.

On the west elevation facing Eskbank Road, there is a bracketed segmental pediment above a moulded shouldered-arched doorway at the center, which features a keystone and a raised surround. The doorway contains a panelled door and a plate glass fanlight. At the first floor, there is a bipartite window with a shield motif above each light. To the left, a full-height canted window is present, and a band course steps over blank panels leading to the aprons of the first-floor windows, with a keystone above the center window. To the right, a full-height advanced panel has deeply stop-chamfered angles on both floors, a tripartite window at ground level, and a Venetian window at the first floor, which has a keystoned center light and shield motifs above the outer lights, along with a band course stepping over the panelled apron.

The north elevation facing Waverley Road features a full-height advanced panel at the center, with a window that has broadly stop-chamfered jambs at ground level. An oriel window at the first floor is corbelled to a square and has a moulded course below it. The eaves cornice and a French pavilion roof are topped with elaborate weathervaned brattishing.

The east elevation has a door and flanking window at the center, with a tall segmental-arched stair window above that includes a window-guard. The outer bays are fenestrated.

On the south elevation, there is a window to the right of the center at the first floor, along with single-storey half-piended service blocks attached at ground level.

The villa features a largely plate glass glazing pattern in its sash and case windows, with some four-pane and small-pane glazing, and colored border glazing in the stair window. The roof is covered with grey slates and has a piend and platform design. Shouldered wallhead stacks with buckled quoin detailing are located to the left and right on the north and south sides, respectively. There is a flat-roofed dormer window on the east pitch, original decorative twisted cans on the west side, and original rainwater goods.

The boundary walls and gatepiers consist of semicircular and flat coped rubble walls, with pyramidal capped gatepiers.