Description

Circa 1625 (see Notes). Rennaissance style pedestrian gateway with elaborate strapwork pediment situated in former garden grounds of Moray House. Polished ashlar. Pilastered columns spanned by lintel with swagged frieze and cornice. Decorative, scrolled and swagged, silhouette strapwork pediment. Later cast-iron gate with scrolled decoration

Statement of Interest

The Moray House gateway is a rare survival and a fine example of 17th century Rennaissance garden architecture particularly notable for its elaborate strapwork pediment. While of interest as an individual example of its type, the gate adds much to the architectural and historic context of Moray House (see separate listing) and the wider interest of the former garden lands of the Canongate. Originally occupying a large parcel of land stretching down to Holyrood Road, Moray House has been described as perhaps the finest aristocratic mansion to survive in the Old Town. The gateway is likely to date from the earlier construction phase of Moray House and may have been moved to its present position, and possibly reconstructed slightly, from an arch that once connected Moray House garden with the South Back of the Canongate at Holyrood Road.

Moray House was built, possibly by William Wallace (see Imrie and Dunbar, Accounts Of The Master Of Works, Vol II) for Mary Dowager, Countess of Home and then passed to her daughter the Countess of Moray in 1643. The British Linen Bank were tenants between 1753 and 1790. Lord Kames, the renowned Scottish lawyer, philosopher and agriculturalist, was also a tenant of the South Wing during this period. Sold in 1845, the extra windows and lowered cills to the E wing (Canongate elevation) date from its conversion to a Free Church Normal School in 1849. The building is currently part of the University of Edinburgh's Education Department.

The historic and architectural value of Edinburgh's Canongate area as a whole cannot be overstated. Embodying a spirit of permanence while constantly evolving, its buildings reflect nearly 1000 years of political, religious and civic development in Scotland.

Part of A-group with Moray House - HBNUM 28449 (see separate listing). List description updated at resurvey (2007/08).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795796

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)