Belmont, 47 Eskbank Road, Dalkeith

Belmont, 47 Eskbank Road, Dalkeith

A 2-storey asymmetrical gabled villa dated 1856, constructed from stugged squared and snecked masonry with ashlar dressings. The building features eaves cornices, moulded reveals and chamfered cills, with transoms to the principal windows.

The west elevation, facing Eskbank Road, comprises three bays with a single recessed bay to the lower left wing. Slightly advanced M-gabled bays occupy the centre and right, with a gabled stone porch at the centre. The porch contains a hoodmoulded and chamfered pointed-arched doorway to the west, featuring carved head label stops and decorative wrought-iron gate and overthrow at the apex. A moulded panel within the gablehead bears a shield inscribed "1856". A wrought iron bell-pull is positioned to the right of the porch entrance. The porch has angle buttresses, saddleback skews and a thistle finial, with small paired shouldered-arched windows to the north and south. Within the porch is a barrel-vault and a door with stained glass panels, fanlight and side-lights. A bipartite stained glass window is positioned above (not visible behind the gable) serving the hall, with a bipartite window at first floor.

The advanced bay to the right contains a tripartite window at ground floor within a panel with coped half-piend roof, and a 2-face canted window at first floor with coped roof. The central bay features a tripartite window at ground floor and a bipartite window at first floor, with a blind arrowslit in the gablehead. The bay to the left has bipartite windows at both ground and first floors, with smaller windows flanking at ground level and a glazed opening above the right window. The recessed wing to the left contains bipartite windows at ground and first floors to its right side.

The south elevation comprises two bays. A slightly advanced gabled bay to the right contains a canted 5-light window at ground floor with cornice, blocking course and simple brattishing, and a stepped pointed-arched tripartite window at first floor with a blind quatrefoil in the gablehead. The bay to the left has a ground floor projection with corniced parapet and a 4-light canted window facing south, with a bipartite window to the east. A dormerheaded bipartite window occurs at first floor, with a small window in the gablehead above.

The east elevation presents five bays. At the centre are tripartite windows at ground and first floors, the latter dormerheaded with a slit in the dormerhead. A slightly advanced gabled bay to the right of centre features a broad tripartite window at ground floor and a bipartite window at first floor, with a window and small window above in the gablehead. A modern conservatory occupies the ground floor in the bays to the left. A glazed 2-leaf door with transomed fanlight is positioned in the bay to the left of centre, with a window at first floor. The outer left bay contains a tripartite window at ground floor and a dormerheaded pointed-arched bipartite window at first floor. The lower recessed bay at the outer right has a window at ground level.

The north elevation displays five bays arranged as 1-3-1, with the outer bays gabled and small slits in the gableheads. The recessed outer left bay contains a lean-to porch with half-piend roof and an adjoining gate, with a window at first floor. The outer right bay has bipartite windows at ground and first floors. An off-centre basket-arched doorway to the right with a small window above provides access, while the centre bays are fenestrated.

The windows throughout exhibit varied glazing patterns, including plate glass in sash and case windows, astragalled in larger sashes, and some small-pane casement and top-hopper windows. Some gableheads are topped with floreate finials featuring crescent and star designs. The roof features coped skews and roll-moulded skewputts, with five coped stacks—two at gablehead and three at ridge—covered in purple-grey slates. Original diamond cans and some original rainwater goods survive.

The interior was refurbished in 1900. The stairwell contains fine plasterwork decoration dated 1900 and monogrammed, above a chequered marble floor, with a cast-iron balustrade to the dog-leg stair and a rectangular skylight. The drawing room displays fine plasterwork cornices and friezes with ceiling decoration and two basket archways. Distyle timber chimneypieces are present. The bathroom retains circa 1900 fittings: an enamel-tiled interior with mosaic floor, a patterned ceramic toilet and cistern with copper fitments, and a cast-iron bath with shower cabinet.

The boundary walls consist of squared and coursed rubble, with ashlar saddleback coping, partly battlemented on Waverley Road. The Eskbank Road entrance features pairs of chamfered ashlar gatepiers: the pair to the right are gablet-capped with sawtooth coping and shield detail, with "Belmont" inscribed on the right pier, while the left pair are corniced and block-capped. Decorative wrought-iron gates complete the entrance.

A lean-to garden shelter stands to the east of the garden, with walls featuring a fleur-de-lis finial and a gabled centre, supported on tree-trunk piers, with tiles and hooped ridge tiles.

The former coach house and stable block, contemporary with the main house and now converted to a dwelling, is situated to the northeast of the garden. It is a rectangular-plan structure built from stugged squared and snecked rubble with chamfered reveals. The south elevation features a Tudor carriage-arch at the centre with a dormerheaded bipartite window above, and fenestrated outer bays with smaller windows at first floor. The south elevation also contains squared basket-arched windows and lancet arrowslits in the principal gableheads. The east elevation has a boarded door with diamond-paned strip fanlight at its centre, a window at first floor to the left of centre, and a lancet slit in the gablehead. The west elevation displays a segmental-arched 2-leaf door at the centre with a window above.