Location

Pentland Avenue is located in the Colinton Conservation Area, a high amenity residential area with fine individual family houses in generous gardens, approximately 4 miles from the city centre. Colinton Village has thriving community and a picturesque setting on the edge of the Water of Leith with a good range of convenience and specialist shops and services, a choice of restaurants, thriving local churches and tennis club.

Merchiston Castle School is on the edge of the village and the property is within easy reach of George Watson's College and Edinburgh Napier University. There is a choice of golf courses in the vicinity as well as lovely country walks along the Water of Leith walkway, the nearby Bonaly Country Park and the Pentlands Regional Park. There is excellent access to the east and west of the City via the City Bypass, connecting to Edinburgh Business Park, the Airport and Central Scotland motorway network.

Description

Colinton Cottage is a sizeable detached family house by Lorimer, with a superb south facing garden. The property is category B Listed and spacious, comfortable accommodation set over two floors. It is a wonderfully light house with predominantly south facing aspects, and lovely open views, allowing for plenty of natural light. The property retains many period features throughout, typical of Lorimer, and these include the fireplaces, extensive woodwork, leaded glass features, door furniture, decorative plaster work and carved window cills.

The front door is situated beside the rounded turret and opens to the vestibule and on into the welcoming entrance hall from where the principal stair rises to the upper floor, as well as providing access to the main reception rooms. The sitting room is a delightful room with a wonderful south facing picture window, plus a west facing additional window, providing an abundance of light and charming views of the garden grounds to the south and west, as well as to the Pentland Hills. Double doors open to the elegant dining room with a working fire and a south facing window. The glazed verandah runs along this side of the house and can be accessed from sitting room as well as the family room. There is also a study at this end of the house which has beautiful exposed timber panelling and a log burning stove, which make it a very cosy room.

The principal family living accommodation is situated to the other end of the house where there is a comfy family room with study area and a gas fire as well as access to the verandah, while there is a WC adjacent. The kitchen is a wonderfully light and bright space with a range of wooden units topped with granite surfaces, as well as an Aga, additional ovens and a coffee machine, while there is ample space for a breakfasting table. There is a pantry and utility room off, as well as access to the back stair leading to the upper floor. From the utility room a door leads to the vestibule for the self-contained annexe, which has its own front door from the front courtyard, as well as giving access to the garden also.

The upper floor can be accessed via both the principal stair and the back stair, both of which lead to the bedroom accommodation. The principal bedroom is at the west end of the house and has far reaching views to the Pentland Hills. It is a generously proportioned room, which benefits from an en suite bath and shower room. There are four further double bedrooms on this floor in the main part of the house, serviced by two further bathrooms. One of these bedrooms has a glazed sun room with stunning views over the gardens to the Pentland Hills.

The annexe kitchen is well-appointed with white units and wooden surfaces, and leads through to a very comfortable sitting room. The stair rises to the upper floor where there are two double bedrooms and a bathroom. The annexe has previously been successfully let, and would be ideal for a carer, nanny or additional family.

Outside
The house faces south and is set well back on its plot with the major part of its ground to the east, south and west of the house. A paved driveway has an electric gated entrance, as well as a EV charger and provides ample off-street parking for a number of cars and leads to the large garage situated within the annexe. The garden grounds are spectacular. A sweeping lawn runs from the west of the house to a wooded area in the corner, and with paths winding down to the lower section of the garden. Here there is a magnificent pond with a decked terrace and a secluded patio which enjoys the afternoon and evening sunlight. The garden is interspersed with a wide variety of mature plants, shrubs and trees which provide superb privacy and excellent colour for much of the year. There is a further walled garden to the east side of the plot. Here there is a generous flat lawn, ideal for ball games and a children's play area.

Planning
Planning permission was previously granted for the current owners to build an additional garage on the eastern section of the garden, with vehicular access directly from Pentland Avenue. It is thought that there could be potential for further development of an additional dwelling in this section of the garden, subject to the necessary permissions.

History
Pentland Avenue was built mainly with Victorian and Edwardian villas, and Colinton Cottage is part of a picturesque development on the ridge on the north side of the Water of Leith that took place during the considerable expansion of Colinton at the turn of the 20th century. No 23, a white-harled red-tiled villa, was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1893 for his aunt, Miss Christian Guthrie Wright, one of the founders of the Edinburgh School of Cookery, later universally known as "Atholl Crescent". It was the first of a series of cottage-type houses that he built in Colinton, and it started a fashion. Sir Robert Lorimer's cottage-type houses, characterised by the abandonment of straight lines and acute angles in favour of gently curving roofs and gables, earned him great popularity and demand as an architect in Colinton and elsewhere. Lorimer practiced from 1893 until 1929, becoming Scotland's leading architect. His work sympathetically showcased the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland.