The Dower House, Corstorphine

I went out for a walk after doing some Christmas Eve shopping in Tescos.

The Dower House is one of the many historic buildings in Corstorphine and I thought I would give you a bit of history about it:

The Corstorphine Trust was given a long lease on the Dower House in 1991

The house and grounds can be traced back to 1587 when it was in the ownership of James Ingles. The name Dower House probably originates from J.P. Wood's Draft History of Corstorphine Parish, (1792) in which the author says when speaking of the old castle "were carried away probably to build Mr. Mitchelson's house that was the residence of the Lord Forresters".

It is sometimes called Gibsone?s Lodge from its late 18th century occupants, the Gibsones of Pentland. The building has characteristic Scottish crow-stepped gables, and scrolled skew puts. The exterior is harled. Renaissance moulding is a feature of the entrance above which is the moulded border of an armorial panel, unfortunately now missing.

The building has definitely been altered over the years, some of the internal walls and the floor levels suggest that the east and west gables were built at different times. There are also skew puts on the east end which are remnants from when the house was attached to a cottage that used to be built against the Dower House and protruded over what is now the road of Orchardfield.

The Corstorphine Trust entered into negotiations regarding the lease of the house in the late 1980's. This was formerly agreed and renovations put in hand, but before work started, the house was broken into and set on fire. This resulted in much superficial damage and the loss of a wall painting on the mid-floor.

Work on restoration of the fabric of the building has been completed with financial support from Historic Scotland, the Lottery Fund, and generous bequests.