Bruntisfield Castle

Bruntisfield Castle, aka Bruntisfield House, is a large mansion house extended several times but dating back to the 16th century. It is in use by the James Gillespie High School and entirely enclosed within their grounds, although there is a public right of way outside of school hours. The lands of Burntisfield were originally part of the Burgh Muir, and the name is derived from “Brounesfield” after Richard Broun, who was the Sergeant of the Muir.

The first residence here was founded after the sale of the lands to Sir Alan de Lauder in 1381, but the present building replaced that, and no trace of the earlier house is known. Although it is described as being built on a Z-plan, the description is in error since that minimises the size of the diagonally opposed wings. The main block of the house is rectangular and oriented east-west, and at the western end of the south wall a large rectangular tower has been erected, with a round stair turret corbelled out in the angle between at first floor level. A smaller, square, tower is sited at the eastern end of the north wall, both “wings” being offset slightly. There is no projecting turret between the square tower and the main block, instead a small corbelled out stair turret at first floor level extends from the north wall at the end of an internal cross wall, and is corbelled out to a rectangular projection at third floor level.. There are fireplaces at the west end of the main block, and in this cross wall, and it is conceivable that the third room of this main block, the easternmost, was actually an addition. However, this has been part demolished and a large extension was added which increased the overall length of this central block by a third, well beyond the square tower. Inside the building, some of the high-status “state rooms” survive, but mostly the building is modified beyond all recognition. The basement is vaulted throughout.

The earlier building was in existence by 1457, as it is mentioned in a charter of the Lauders, and it is conceivable that either the south-west wing has its origins as a 15th century tower. There is a difference in the thickness of the walls of this tower along the east and west sides, where the walls step back and a difference in height of ten centimetres in the vaulting in this building as well, depicted on a 1942 plan drawn up by the city architects, and a very small slit window in the west wall which matches no other window in the building. The eastern extension is known to be the work carried out in 1605 for John Fairlie of Braid who had purchased the property two years earlier from Sir Aleaxnder Lauder. The main building of the castle postdates the 1544 sacking and presumed destruction of the older house by the Duke of Somerset, so there may in fact be three main phases of construction, the mid 15th century tower, a mid 16th century rebuild which included the construction of the central block and a square tower, and then the 1603-1605 work of Fairlie – without considering the possible two phases of the central block. In 1695 the estate and house were sold to George Warrender, later Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The house was extended further in the 19th century to the north and east in a style intended to mirror the older building, and in the 1930s it was threatened with demolition, but eventually ceded to the Edinburgh Corporation on condition the use of the grounds was restricted to public welfare, the result of which was its incorporation into a school after a fire.

HES Canmore database entry