Uttershill House Boundary Walls, Gates And Gatepiers

Uttershill House is a largely later 19th-century house, with later alterations and additions, situated on Pomathorn Road, Penicuik. It is currently subdivided into three separate dwellings. The house is two storeys and an attic, originally designed with three bays, and built of red brick with a contrasting brick base course and ashlar sandstone dressings. Decorative features include a string course of angled bricks dividing the floors and a sandstone eaves course, along with stone mullions. Chamfered arrises are present on the openings.

The principal elevation is three bays wide. The central point arch doorway is situated within an advanced brick panel and features substantial stone columns with carved stylised capitals—a stork or heron to the left and an owl to the right. The archway has a chamfered surround with a cusped, trefoil fanlight, partially glazed panelled door and a parapet above with a stone heraldic shield to the centre. A plate-traceried gabled dormer is positioned within the attic, with windows featuring inner cusping. The flanking bays are gabled and project, featuring tripartite windows at ground level with colonnette mullions (carved foliate capitals) and Tudor-arch heads. The first floor has bipartite windows, with relieving arches above, and large, decoratively glazed vesicas in gableheads.

The side elevations show gabled bays towards the front with chimney breasts rising to apex stacks. There is a Tudor-arched window at ground level and a variety of irregular fenestration in the upper floors. A later porch addition exists on the right return elevation, with a single-storey addition to the left return. Dormers are detailed in the same style as those on the front elevation. The right return also includes a two-storey, piend-roofed lower service wing extension to the rear, projecting to the side.

The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass glazing. The roof is covered in grey slate, with a fishscale band. Brick gablehead stacks have stone coping. A later flat roof replaces the original roof valley.

The interior has been altered due to subdivision, but retains an original curved staircase and some original fireplaces.

Stone coped brick boundary walls enclose the property. Decorative timber vehicular and pedestrian gates lead to the drive, featuring carved rails and gothic detailing. Stone gatepiers have stop-chamfered arrises and battered caps. A bowed stone gateway to the garden incorporates a dated (1565) overthrow/lintel and moulded door surround, salvaged from the remains of Uttershill Castle, which are located within the grounds.