Blue Cottage, Malleny House, Edinburgh, Pentland Hills, Edinburgh

Description

Earlier 18th century house incorporating chimney of earlier house of 1589 earlier 19th century additions. 2 storey and attic, 4-bay main block with single storey block to NE; castellated kitchen wing to SW. Harled with sandstone margins and dressings for main block, gabled dormerheads; stugged, coursed sandstone with polished margins for NE block. Crowstepped gables.

SE ELEVATION: 4-bay, near-symmetrical main block. Door at penultimate bay to left; droved margin with heavily carved pointed arch hoodmould; escutcheon in tympanum; boarded and studded outer door; Gothick inner half-glazed door. Windows symmetrically disposed from ground to 1st floor in outer left bay; 2 widely spaced bays to right of door; penultimate bay to right, near-symmetrical but with 2 windows at ground, that to left later. 2 windows at ground outer right, window at 1st floor with dormerheaded window to outer right. Circa 1820 3-bay, single storey bow-ended block linked to main house by classical tripartite door, 6-panelled with 4-pane side lights, radiating fanlight; blocking course above. 2-bay bow to outer right; 2-bay right return with bow end to outer right.

SERVICE BLOCK:

Earlier 19th century single storey L-plan block attached at SW corner with battlemented screen wall facing entrance area; Gothick entrance of 2 storeys with blind upper pointed arch window; battlemented parapet with bartizan at left corner; later 19th century grid gate to left; rivetted thistle ironwork details: lower, coped rubble boundary wall to left; battlemented bay with boarded opening attached to main house facing SE.

NW ELEVATION: 5 asymmetrical bays, single storey bowed block to outer left; single storey kitchen block to outer right. Full-height turnpike stair tower off-centre to right; small windows; low, narrow door immediately to right with windows symmetrically disposed in floors above, small window under eaves; window at ground outer right. Tall, coped, rubble wallhead stack to left of tower, windows at ground and 1st floor below. 2-bay block with gable breaking eaves to left; blank bay to outer left; piend-roofed dormers, rooflights. Bowed block advanced to outer left; gabled block to outer right, window at centre.

12-pane sash and case windows; grey slate roof; crowstepped gables; corniced ridge, apex stacks; thack stanes; decorative floral cast iron ventilation grids.

INTERIOR: main entrance now through circa 1820 door; groin-vaulted vestibule, stone stair, decorative cast-iron balusters; bowed drawing room to right at front, delicate plasterwork; dining room behind, simple cornice, black marble fireplace; stair of earlier 19th century addition links with main block at 1st floor passage. Main block with interiors of circa 1740, painted panelling, chimneypieces with overmantel classical paintings; oak panelled room at centre, double lugged chimneypiece. Kitchen at ground left with early 17th century fireplace; armorial panel and datestone 1589 (from over entrance of earlier house) set into fireplace.

WALLED GARDEN, BOTHY AND SUNDIAL: walled garden to N of house, surrounded on 3 sides by rubble walls with sandstone slab coping. 1972 pagoda-like lych gate at centre of E wall, designed by William Schomberg Scott for National Trust for Scotland. Greenhouses against N wall of garden. Gabled bothy straddling W wall, rubble, slate roof, barred windows.

Yew hedge divides garden along NE/SW axis, 4 yew trees to NE of main front, both apparently dating from early 17th century.

SUNDIAL: dated 1700. Ashlar baluster sundial to NE of walled garden; gnomons.

IRONWORK: designed by Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, later 19th century. Numerous pieces of wrought-iron work around the garden. To SE of house a small gate with bird finials, decorative 2-leaf gate; gate and railings with thistle and floral motif to right of dovecot.

GATES AND GATEPIERS: ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps; decorative cast iron gates. Rusticated rubble sandstone bridge carries avenue over Bavelaw Burn; ashlar saddleback coping.

GREEN COTTAGE, CARTSHED, GRANARY AND STABLES: earlier-mid 19th century with alterations 1910-1939. Rubble with polished sandstone margins and dressings. L-plan block to NE of house comprising single storey and attic cottage; cartshed and granary and single storey cottage wing to N.

S ELEVATION: 3-bay cottage to outer left; door at centre; flanking symmetrical bays, gabled dormerheads. 5-bay stable, cartshed and granary block to right. 2-leaf boarded cart door immediately to right of cottage, boarded pedestrian door to right; window at centre; 2 basket-arched cart entrances to outer right; small granary windows under eaves.

W ELEVATION: rectangular-plan cottage wing; painted rubble, blocked openings, windows of varying sizes.

N ELEVATION: low, rear wall of stable and granary block; very steep slated roof with rooflights. Boarded door breaking eaves off-centre to left; rooflights. Barn entrance recessed to right; tall, modern gabled lean-to barn projects in front.

12-pane sash and case windows; grey slate roof, ashlar coping to skews.

Statement of Interest

Property of the National Trust for Scotland. Malleny House probably dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, but incorporates an internal datestone of 1589 belonging to an early house. The datestone has the initials WK and JL, William Knychtsoune and Joneta Livingstone. The Knychtsoune family are the earliest known owners of the Malleny estate, resident there from 1478. In 1617 the lands were sold and it is thought the Sir James Murray of Kilbaberton, Master of the King's Works built the existing house. In 1647 the estate was acquired by William Scott, who became Lord Clerkington in 1649 and in 1656 his son Sir John Scott became the 1st Scott of Malleny. The Scotts were responsible for the building of the dovecot and some of the planting of the garden. General Thomas Scott added the drawing room wing in 1820 and the kitchen block was probably also added in the earlier 19th century. There are some good examples of ironwork in the grounds designed by Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichel who leased Malleny from 1882-1910. He removed many of the ironwork pieces to his home at Skirling when he was apponinted Governor of Victoria. The garden is an important feature with plantings dating from the early 17th century. The yew trees grouped to the NE of the house are only 4 remaining from 12, apparently planted to commemorate the union between Scotland and England and were known as 'the twelve apostles', they were removed in the 1960s. The dovecot to the SE and the Scott Memorial located in the wood to the NE of the house are listed separately.

External Links

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