161-163 High Street, Dalkeith

161-163 High Street in Dalkeith is a mid-18th century L-plan tenement featuring an asymmetric octagonal stair tower at the rear in the northwest angle. The building stands three stories tall with an attic and has four bays that are grouped towards the center. The exterior is harled with painted margins and an eaves cornice on the north elevation of the jamb.

On the east elevation facing High Street, there is a pilastered doorpiece located in the bay to the left of center, with a strip fanlight above an ashlar lintel. The windows are regularly arranged across all floors, with smaller windows on the ground floor in the bays to the right.

The west elevation has a gable jamb that is advanced to the right, a door to the north of the tower, and three stair windows. There are also windows flanking to the left and on the left return of the jamb on each floor. Attached to the blank gable of the jamb is a two-storey rubble lean-to outbuilding, which has grey slates and coped skews.

The north elevation is blank, while the south elevation is largely blank to the left but features five irregularly sized and positioned windows. It is adjoined to Nos 153 and 155 High Street by the remaining gable wall of a previously neighboring building.

The sash and case windows have a small-pane glazing pattern, with 12-pane windows on the east elevation and varying sizes of fixed panes on the tower. The building also includes three piended slate-hung dormer windows with broad margins on the east pitch, coped skews, gablehead stacks, and a polygonal roof on the tower, all covered with grey slates.