Caroline Park House

Caroline Park is one of Edinburgh’s most historic private homes. For decades it has remained submerged and hidden in the industrial and post-industrial area of Granton, surrounded by its dominating gasworks. Now the area is redeveloped, the building is becoming increasingly visible.

The original sea gates by stonemason William Mylne also date from the period 1684-1685. These gates when open, would have led from Caroline Park to the Sea Road (now West Shore Road) and Granton’s once, but no longer, sandy shore.

Thus the house has borne witness to the alterations, additions and changes throughout Scottish and British history; including the Renaissance, the signing of the act of union, the substantial changes as a result of the Industrial Revolution, the social fall-out of post-industrial Britain in the late 20th century and the recent rapid urban developments of the 21st century. Before listed status in 1966 by AB Fleming, most of the original land estate had been taken over for industrial use, such as for Granton Harbour and the Scottish Gasworks. The building was also once repurposed as an ink factory. The south range suffered a bad fire in 1934 and required timber and plaster reconstruction in a simple manner after. Over the past three decades the building has been gradually restored by its current owners to as close to its former authentic state as possible.

The quadrangular house as it appears today is predominantly the work of Sir George Mackenzie, Earl of Cromartie, who completed the remodelling of a smaller 16th-century house built by Andrew Logan of the Shore, Leith, in favour of an increasingly grand courtyard house. Fine Italian and French concepts in arts, crafts and aesthetics are reflected in the house’s intact Renaissance features on the northern side. The ceiling panels, painted by the artist Nicolas Heude, are an example of the huge contribution and influence left behind by the Huguenot diaspora and its skilled artists, designers and craftsmen who came as Protestant exiles to Britain during the late 17th century.