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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1096046
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1096046
190. Morton House, Frogstone Road .
The dower-house of the Mortonhall estate stands within a policy on the S. side of Frogstone Road. Its E. portion is a little country-house of Queen Anne's time which seems to be based on the remains of an older building; to the W. side of this a new entrance-front was added towards the beginning of the 19th century. This front overlooks a carriage sweep, the entrance to which is flanked by a pair of square pavilions. These are contemporary with the E. part of the house, but they have been altered; the one to the N. still retains the original ogival roof while the pyramidal roof of the one to the S. is more recent. In the early eighteenth century the house was L-shaped, the main block running N. and S. and a wing projecting E. from its N. end to overlook a kitchen court on the N. The main block contains two storeys and an attic, while the wing, as the result of an alteration, has a storey less and the present lean-to roof is not the origin alone. The masonry is of rubble throughout, the window margins being back-set and chamfered. On the E. elevation (Fig. 404 [SC 1469266]) there is a central gablet with scrolled skew-puts. On either side of this there is a dormer, the one to the S. bearing the date 1709, the year in which this part of the house was built or remodelled. There is nothing of particular interest to be seen inside the main block but in the wing there is a wooden staircase with flat, shaped balusters. The room on the E. of the staircase was evidently the kitchen, for the arch of the fireplace can still be seen in the gable and a heavy chimney stalk rises above the existing roof. At the S.E. corner of the wing there is a plain tabular sundial bearing the date 1713. A rounded projection at the S.E. corner of the kitchen court is said to contain a draw-well.
The later part of the house is a typical late Georgian front containing a central vestibule and staircase with a room at each side. The S. room on the ground floor has a pine mantelpiece, its frieze enriched in stucco with a pastoral scene.
RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941
