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Edinburgh, 3 Stenhouse Mill Lane, Stenhouse
House (17th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, 3 Stenhouse Mill Lane, Stenhouse
Classification House (17th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Old Castle; Saughton Mill; Stenhopes Mills; Stenhouse Mill Wynd; Stenhouse Mansion
Canmore ID 52645
Site Number NT27SW 22
NGR NT 21649 71433
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52645
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- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SW 22 21649 71433
(NT 2164 7142) Old Castle (NR) (rems of)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1973)
Old Castle, Saughton Mills or Stenhopes Mills: This building was erected in 1623, the date inscribed above the entrance. Originally, it was the mansion of Patrick Eleis or Ellis, a burgess of Edinburgh; it is now reduced in area and provides labourers' dwellings. Farm and mill buildings enclose the site on N, E, and S. On plan the structure is a 3-storeyed main block with two wings projecting to W. There are traces of a wing midway along the E lateral wall, and there has been a low building against the N wing. The house is in bad condition (RCAHMS 1929). Some restoration work was carried out on it when it was acquired by the National Trust in 1938. They call it 'Stenhouse Mansion'.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1920; National Trust for Scotland 1959.
Saughton Mill is as described and in a good state of preservation.
Visited by OS (B S) 3 December 1975.
Descheduled.
Information from Historic Scotland, Certificate of Exclusion from Schedule dated 17 October 1991.
NT27SW 22 21649 71433
Architects: Ian G. Lindsay & Partners. Restoration 1961-65.
Orphoot, Whitng & Lindsay. Restoration 1937-48.
Field Visit (8 September 1920)
Old Castle, Saughton Mills or Stenhopes Mills.
Originally this was the large and commodious mansion of Patrick Eleis or Ellis, a merchant and burgess of Edinburgh (1); it is now reduced, slightly in area and greatly in degree, as it provides labourers' dwellings. It was built, as a date above the entrance indicates, in 1623, on a pleasant and open site bordered by the Water of Leith. Farm and mill buildings enclose the site on north, east, and south.
On plan, the structure shows a three-storeyed main block, which measures 72 ½ feet from north to south, by 21 feet 10 inches from east to west. From this main portion two wings project 16 ½ feet westwards; one, two-storeyed, is in continuation of the south gable, the other, which is carried a storey higher, is centrally situated, and contains the entrance at its north re-entrant angle. The structure was harled, and is built of rubble, mainly freestone, with polished freestone quoins and dressings. The windows have back-set margins and are chamfered at jambs and lintel, but the entrance to the house, and the entrance which adjoins it and gives access to the western cellar of the north wing, are more elaborately treated. These have well-moulded Renaissance architraves, and the continuous cornice which surmounts them is carried as a string-course along the wall.
On the plane surface of the architrave round the house is inscribed: BLISIT . BE . GOD . FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS. Above this door is an armorial panel within a moulded border supported by scrolled trusses enriched with a vine motif. On the panel is a scrolled cartouche, bearing a shield charged with a sword in bend, point uppermost, between two helmets in profile, for Ellis of Saughton. The panel is initialled P. E. for Patrick Ellis, and dated 1623. The first floor windows of the north wing have been grated, and two windows still retain the iron grilles. The gables throughout are crow-stepped and have moulded skew-puts; the chimney copes also are moulded.
Midway along the east lateral wall there are traces of a wing, which once projected eastwards to match the existing northern wing, and against the northern wing there has been a low building parallel to the northern portion of the main block. The entrance thus lay within a courtyard, which to the north may have been either open or else enclosed by a boundary wall pierced by an arched. gateway. The eastern wing was demolished within living memory; the western outbuilding is represented only by its east wall.
Internally there is little of interest. On the basement-floor was the kitchen with its offices; on the first floor were the public rooms, and on the upper floor the bedrooms. The wings contain one chamber on each floor, but the northern also houses the main staircase, a turnpike, which ascends to the first floor only; access from this level to the upper floor is by a small turret-stair, mainly mural but with a slight external projection within the re-entrant angle. The main block is divided transversely by a heavy mid-wall, which is carried up from ground to roof; within each division thus formed there were two chambers on the ground and second floors, but only one on the first floor. The two northern cellars in the basement are the only vaulted portions of the house. The outer has in the gable a series of sixteen recesses about 1 foot square, rather irregularly spaced up to a height of 4 feet above the floor. The inner cellar contains a draw-well. The kitchen was the chamber immediately south of the mid-wall. It has a large fireplace and oven; the latter projects within the room !is well as externally from the south wall. A chamber on the second floor, known as King Charles's Room, has an enriched ceiling of plaster now sadly decayed and mutilated. In a like state is a plaster panel above the fireplace, 3 feet 9 inches broad, by 1 foot 6 inches high, which bears in the centre the crest of Scotland and the initials C.R.2. On the dexter side, above a label on which the inscription is now illegible, are two daggers crossed in saltire, point uppermost, above which is a coronet; on the sinister side is a saltire surmounted by a coronet. Both devices bear initials similar to those on the crest. The panel probably commemorates the Restoration.
The house is in bad condition structurally but is still inhabited.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 8 September 1920.
(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., No. 850. There were ‘grain-mills and fulling-mills’ here on the Water of Leith. Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., 1662, No. 308.
Project (1997)
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (http://www.pmsa.org.uk/) set up a National Recording Project in 1997 with the aim of making a survey of public monuments and sculpture in Britain ranging from medieval monuments to the most contemporary works. Information from the Edinburgh project was added to the RCAHMS database in October 2010 and again in 2012.
The PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) Edinburgh Sculpture Project has been supported by Eastern Photocolour, Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Historic Scotland, the Hope Scott Trust, The Old Edinburgh Club, the Pilgrim Trust, the RCAHMS, and the Scottish Archive Network.
Field Visit (22 April 2006)
Coat of arms of Patrick Ellis, composed of a red shield decorated with two gold helmets facing left, with a silver sword placed diagonally between them. The shield is surrounded by gold scrollwork.
The building dates from the 16th century, but in 1623 Patrick Ellis, an Edinburgh merchant, extended it to a T plan. His coat of arms was carved above the door at this time.
In 1937 the building was gifted to the National Trust and was restored by Ian G. Lindsay in 1937-9 and 1962-5. It is now the Stenhouse Conservation Centre.
Inspected By : D. Lee
Inscriptions : In corners of panel, above coat of arms (raised gilded letters): P E
In corners of panel, below coat of arms (raised gilded numbers): 16 23
On lintel above door (gilded letters): BLISIT . B . GOD . FOR . AL . HIS . GIFTIS
Signatures : None
Design period : 1623
Year of unveiling : 1623
Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN0900)
