Field Visit
Date 18 February 1921
Event ID 1115335
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1115335
Halkerston.
Adjoining Inveresk Lodge is Halkerston, a small but very interesting house of the same period as the extension of the Lodge- that is, about the last decade of the 17th century - and probably by the same builder. The plan is a square, 44 1/3 feet by 43 feet 10 inches, and towards the street the house has an elevation including ground floor, an attic, and a garret, while in rear there is a vaulted "laich" floor. The walls are harled, but the front has been subsequently cemented. The voids have dressed and back-set margins which are chamfered at the arrises. The very distinctive character of this house is due partly to its plan but principally to its great pyramidal roof of timber covered with small blue slates, which rises from the relatively low eaves to a central chimney at the apex; the lateral walls are surmounted by great chimney-stalks in four stages. The eaves-line, as on the neighbouring house, is broken by dormers at front and rear. The stair, a turnpike, has no external projection and lies within the house, but when it rises above the roof it is contained within a gabled and crowstepped tower. From the stair-foot a straight flight leads down to the "laich" floor and probably formed the only access, for the present south entrance is most probably a transformed window. The main entrance faces the street. The two cellars comprising the "laich" floor are respectively the kitchen and the well-room. The former has in the north gable a wide fireplace with segmental arch; beside this, in the adjacent window-sole, was until recently a stone sink or slop outlet. The well has been filled in, but its circular outline can just be traced on the earth floor. The cellars are ceiled with barrel-vaults of stone springing from north to south, which, where the plaster has been stripped, are seen to be formed in squared rubble in a surprisingly fresh condition; from floor to springing, on the other hand, the walls are of inferior masonry and are perhaps of earlier date. On the ground and attic floor there have been four apartments, while above there were two garrets. These rooms are modernised, but the two east attics retain panel stiles and rails in painted pine, while the simply moulded plaster cornices are contemporary.
HISTORICAL NOTE. In 1629 James Dundas of Arniston was served heir in the lands of Halkerston, and in 1680 Robert Dundas heir to James in the same lands.- Inquis. Spec., Edinburgh, Nos. 630, 1259.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 18 February 1921
OS map: Edinburgh iv S.E. (unnoted).
