Edinburgh, 30-50 Morrison Street

184. Castle Barns, Morrison Street.

All that survives of Castle Barns are two plain, oblong, rubble-built tenements (Numbers 40-44 Morrison Street) and their western neighbour (Number 50), none of which seem earlier than the middle of the 18th century. The larger house has three storeys and an attic, entrance to the upper floors being had from a semicircular stair-tower projecting behind into Orchardfield Court, which is itself entered from a central passage running beneath the building and arched at either end. On the ground floor there is a modern shop on each side of the passage. The first and second floors each have six windows to the front, while the attic is lit from a storm window on each side of a central gablet which contains two windows. The roof is pantiled. Each floor was a separate flat, and the interior is devoid of interest. The extension from the E. gable is of considerably later date; but the low pantiled building which extends westward from the other gable is contemporary, and is typical of the minor houses in Scottish country towns. It has two storeys and an attic, the first floor being entered by a forestair. The interior is again quite uninteresting.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941