Description

William Skinner, 1748; E Ingress Bell, 1893 and T Ivor-Moore, 1897, with later alterations and additions. 2-storey 10-bay rectangular-plan pitch-roofed building to S: random rubble with polished dressings; open round-arched arcade to ground floor, steps to round-arched entrance at 1st floor to right; corbel table below eaves; small pedimented dormers to attic. 2-storey and attic L-plan Baronial block to N: random rubble with polished dressings; corbel table under eaves; tall narrow projecting block to left with modern timber stair adjoining; projecting gabled bay to right; 5 tall windows with pedimented dormers breaking eaves; timber boarded door in roll-moulded surround with Greek inscription and carving in segmental pediment. Single storey steeply gabled building to E (former kitchen).

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Kneelered, crowsteppped skews. Pyramidally corniced stacks with circular cans.

SENTRY BOXES AND URNS: 2 18th century stone urns and 2 18th century stone sentry boxes flanking entrance, with ball-finialled swept-roofs and depressed-arched openings, linked by arched iron overthrow with central lantern.

Statement of Interest

The A Group comprises Batteries, Foog's Gate, Gatehouse, Governor's House, Great Hall, Lang Stairs, Military Prison, National War Museum, New Barracks, Old Guardhouse, Palace Block, Portcullis Gate, St Margaret's Chapel, Scottish National War Memorial, Telephone Kiosks, United Services Museum and Vaults, all within Edinburgh Castle, and in the Care of Historic Scotland. Ingress Bell was a consulting architect to the War Office. The magazine, built in 1748, and the twin ordnance stores of 1753-4 (both designed by William Skinner) formed a quadrangle at the NW corner of the castle. Together with the New Barracks, built in 1796-9, they gave the castle a very austere appearance from the N. After Blanc's restoration of the Great Hall, which had previously housed the military hospital, the decision was taken to reconstruct the ordnance store complex as a military hospital, at the same time giving it a more romantic aspect. Ingress Bell's design, executed with some alterations by Ivor-Moore, involved demolishing the magazine, raising the N range by a storey and giving it Scottish Baronial details. The S range was given a matching corbel table and crowsteps, but the arcaded ground floor was preserved. The buildings, with a modern link to W, incorporating the heavily corbelled linking terrace, now house the National War Museum of Scotland

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House