South Gate, Arniston House is a Grade B listed building in the Midlothian local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 22 January 1971.
South Gate, Arniston House
- WRENN ID
- sheer-rafter-fen
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Midlothian
- Constituency
- Midlothian MP: Kirsty McNeill (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 22 January 1971
- OS grid reference
- NT 327 589
- Coordinates
- 55.81948, -3.0745
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Dated 1824, South Gate comprises a pair of 18th-century circular piers constructed from polished ashlar, with alternating rusticated band courses. A polished frieze is carved with swags, and a bracketed cornice supports crouching lions. The decorative ironwork gates have two leaves, bearing the inscriptions "1W8" and "2D4," indicating William Dundas, 1824. The gate is enclosed by screen walls with tooled surfaces and droved margins, finished with moulded ashlar coping.
These piers and gates, known as the Cougar Gates, were not originally located at Arniston House, but were acquired by Lord Chief Baron Robert Dundas (1758-1819) in 1766 or 1767. According to the Arniston Memoirs, they originally stood in front of a house on Nicolson Street, and were purchased for twenty guineas.
Local climate
South Gate, Arniston House sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 53% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 55 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 95% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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