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Edinburgh, 91 Peffermill Road, Peffermill House

House (17th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, 91 Peffermill Road, Peffermill House

Classification House (17th Century)

Canmore ID 52111

Site Number NT27SE 109

NGR NT 28323 71654

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52111

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27SE 109.00 28323 71654

NT27SE 109.01 283 716 garden; sundial

(NT 2832 7164) Peffermill (NR)

OS 6" map, (1966)

Peffermill was built c. 1636 (the date on a pediment) by Edward Edgar. It became a farmhouse, and subsequently was divided into small dwellings, but it was restored as a single tenement a few years before 1920. It is L- shaped on plan and 3 storeys and a garret in height. The walls are of harled rubble.

The ONB (1852) states that there are some indications of Peffermill having been surrounded by a ditch or moat.

Name Book 1852; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1920.

As described above. In good condition and in use as a dwelling house. There are now no signs of a moat.

Visited by OS (J F C) 14 December 1953.

As described in previous field report.

Visited by OS (S F S) 3 December 1975.

Activities

Field Visit (22 June 1920)

Peffermill.

About half a mile east of Cameron Toll is the 17th-century mansion of Peffermill (Fig. 177), built by Edward Edgar of Peffermill, c. 1636. It became a farmhouse, and subsequently was divided into small dwellings, but within the last few years it has been restored as a single tenement. On plan the structure is L-shaped, comprising a main block, which runs north-east and south west and measures 76 feet by 22 ¾ feet, and a "jamb" or wing projecting rectangularly, 24 ½ feet from the south-western end of the south-east wall, with a width of 25 feet; in the re-entrant angle, which faces east, is a circled staircase tower. In height there are three storeys, of which the uppermost is an attic lit by dormers, while above this is a garret.

The masonry is of rubble, harled, with the dressings exposed-these are of local grey freestone. The windows have a splay on jambs and lintel; the eaves-course is moulded, and a moulded string-course returns at sill level of the dormers and a second, on parts only of the structure, at the level of the first-floor sills. The gables are crow-stepped; the roofs, steeply pitched, are of timber, slated. The majority of the dormers have semicircular pediments, but others are pointed and segmental; one such on the north-west elevation is dated 1636.

The entrance is in the tower through a doorway with a Scottish Renaissance architrave and cornice, the latter surmounted by a curvilinear" broken" pediment, which contains a strap-work cartouche bearing a shield parted per pale and charged with a lion rampant, for Edgar, and two swords issuing from the dexter and sinister chief points respectively, their points piercing a man's heart, with a cinquefoil in the honour point, for Pearson of Kippenross. On a label below are the mottos, CUI VULT DAT DEUS : DUM SPIRO SPERO. The shield is surmounted by a cherub's head; above this, supported on a little corbel, is a roundel bearing in monogram E. E. M. P for Edward Edgar (1) and his wife, M. Pearson (see above). A scroll borders the roundel and is inscribed, GOD WILL PROVYD.

Internally the rooms were originally the fullwidth of the house and necessarily intercommunicated, as there were no passages. The two south-western chambers only are vaulted, and the southern of these was the kitchen. This had a widely arched fireplace in the south-east gable with a slop sink and outlet adjoining; at some later period a small chamber was formed within the opening by the insertion of a screen wall.

SUNDIALS. On three side walls are three identical sundials of the tablet type, each surmounted by a strap-worked pediment and supported on a cherub's head.

MILL. The coachman's house, which stands a few yards to the north-east, is dated 1670; it was formerly a mill.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 22 June 1920.

(1) History of the Parish of Liberton, by G. Good, p. 70.

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