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Edinburgh, Grange Loan, Grange House

House (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Edinburgh, Grange Loan, Grange House

Classification House (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Grange House Lodge

Canmore ID 52545

Site Number NT27SE 79

NGR NT 25967 71675

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52545

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 79 2595 7167.

Grange House AD. 1613. (NAT)

OS 6"map, (1931/2 and 1938)

Grange House: (NT 2596 7167) Demolished in 1936. The only remains are the 18th century gate-piers and 2 late 17th century offices. They (offices) stand at what was the NE corner of the site. The house was built by Walter Cant in 1592 and grew into a large and mainly modern structure. Grange House took its name from the grange or farm of St Giles' Church. It ceased to be Church property in 1335, and by the 16th century it was owned by the family of Cant, from whom it was purchased by Sir William Dick of Braid in 1631....(RCAHMS 1951)

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; RCAHMS 1951.

No traces of the house or outbuildings exist; site built over by modern houses.

Visited by OS (J D) 31 December 1953.

Grange House - The oldest portion of the house dates from 1592, but the greater part of the building is of 19th century works. A door lintel bears the date '1592': while in a wall of the outbuildings are arms bearing the dates '1613' and '1674'. The gate pillars are of 17th century date.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; Visited by OS (J D) 5 June 1954.

The information from OS (J D) in 1953 is still correct. OS (J D) 1954, substantiates dating information from MacGibbon and Ross (1887-92) - ie. 16th century mansion-house. Accurate dating of gate-pillars was not ascertained - but one exists still.

Visited by OS (J D) 5 June 1954.

Architecture Notes

ARCHITECT : Playfair (additions 1831).

Demolished c.1936.

REFERENCE : Plans:

Edinburgh University Library, George Square. Playfair Collection: 1831

90 sheets of additions to the L-plan house (Page 20)

REFERENCE :

In relation to drawings EDD/101/1-5, the catalogue slip says 'See also RED/20/1 Exterior stone stairs, with Pollok Castle, Renfrewshire.' This drawing was not found at the time of upgrade.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

195. Gate-posts, etc., Grange House, Grange Loan .

The only surviving remains of Grange House, which was demolished in 1936, are the gate-piers of its principal entrance and two late 17th century offices. The gate-piers have now been re-erected at the W. and E. ends of the frontage on Grange Loan, one at the corner of Lover's Lane [NT27SE 2066] and the other 70 yds. W. of the corner of Lauder Road [NT27SE 2067]. They are of early 18th-century date, and are rusticated, enriched, and surmounted with the Lauder griffin. The offices are small buildings of harled rubble, each having two storeys and a pantiled roof and the W. one a forestair with bottle-nosed steps; they stand at what was the N.E. corner of the site, and the service entrance of the house formerly passed southwards between them. Some carved stones from Grange House are also preserved in Huntly House (No. 104, q.v.).

Grange House took its name from the grange or farm of St. Giles' Church, of which it was originally part. It ceased to be Church property in 1335 and by the 16th century it was owned by the family of Cant, from whom it was purchased by Sir William Dick of Braid in 1631. A century later the heiress of Grange married Sir Andrew Lauder of the Fountainhall family, and shortly before her death, which occurred in 1758, this lady disponed her property to Andrew, her eldest surviving son, who thereupon took the maternal surname of Dick. In 1769, however, he inherited his father's title and estate and became Sir Andrew Dick-Lauder, 6th Baronet of Fountainhall and fourth Baron of Grange, ancestor of the late proprietor.

From a modest ‘house with a jamb’, built by Walter Cant in 1592, the mansion grew into a large, lofty and mainly modern structure, incorporating the older house on its N.W. side. The older house comprised a main block of three storeys and an attic running E. and W., to which was attached a rectangular stair-tower on the N. and a ‘jamb’ or wing on the S. in alinement with the E. gable. Within the re-entrant angle, which opened to the S.W., a turret-stair was corbelled out on a conoidal corbelling of nine members. If not an extension, the upper part of this stair must have been rebuilt. The masonry was of harled rubble and the dressings at the voids, where unaltered, had rounded arrises. The original entrance could be seen built up in what had been the original W. wall of the stair tower but was latterly enclosed by a modern addition. Its lintel bore a merchant's mark with the initials M P* in monogram followed by an index hand pointing to an inscription REPOSE ALLEVRS ANNO 1592.The stair within, long since removed, was of scale-and-platt type and rose only to the first floor, from which the ascent was continued by the turret-stair. Above it, where the walls were set out on a continuous encorbellment, lay a series of small chambers, one above the other. The basement floor of the main block was vaulted. The upper floors had all been modernised.

CARVED STONES. When the building was visited in 1936, the following carved stones were noted, but it is not known whether they survived the demolition.

( 1) A small stone bearing a monogram of the initials W D C L, doubtless for William Dick, second Baron of Grange, and his wife Charles Leslie, with the date 1674.

(2) A lintel bearing a monogram of the same initials W D C L.

WOOD CARVING. ln 1936 the National Museum received a donation of pieces of oak panelling from Grange House.

DRAW-WELL. In August 1936 a draw-well, nearly 40 ft. deep and still holding 7 ft. of water, was discovered in the garden on the E. side of the house. Within it, extending from ground level to the water, was a wooden draw-pipe, hollowed from the trunk of a tree and fitted with an iron plunger.

RCAHMS 1951, visited 1936.

*These initials evidently stood for Margaret Preston, grand-daughter of Sir Simon Preston of Craigmillar, who married Walter Cant of St. Giles' Grange about 1582.

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