Stenhouse Mansion

What would it feel like to have this as your front door,  I wonder.

This is now an F-plan mansion, although originally the traditional L- and later T-shape, built in 1511 by the Stenhope family who owned mills in the locality.There are various references under different spellings of the name until 1773 when the name Stenhouse Mill prevailed. The oldest building was rebuilt and extended in 1623 by Patrick Ellis, an Edinburgh burgess, whose arms with initials and the date appear above the door. The motto, not uncommon in the early Reformation,  Blisit. Be. God. For. Al. His. Giftis. (Grace Before Meat) is inscribed on the lintel.

Saved from dereliction after division into accommodation for labourers, in 1937 the property was bound over to the National Trust for Scotland, who gave it its present name, by the Greyhound Racing Association and now A-listed although surrounded by industrial units, it serves as a conservation centre for Historic Scotland.