.Built 1618

.

Old Moray House stands on the south side of the Canongate, part of the Royal Mile connecting Edinburgh Castle in the west to Holyrood Palace in the east. It is one of the few remaining original aristocratic buildings in the Canongate and is the oldest building in the University of Edinburgh. • 17th century aristocratic house built by Mary, Countess of Home • The House of Moray connection • The British Linen Hall • The Cowan family • The Free Church of Scotland Normal and Sessional School • 20th century refurbishment • The Garden • The Summer House • The Plaster Ceilings [ Estates Map Page | School Homepage ]

 

(Old) Moray House was built around 1618 by Mary, Countess of Home. It was built at a time when there was greater political stability in Scotland and England and when the Canongate was becoming a desirable district for the town houses of the Scottish aristocracy. It was designed to provide an elegant mansion for members of her family.

The house, two stories high, was built of light grey freestone. Contemporary documents record that her house was referred to as the 'great ludging' and has been described as 'the handsomest house in Edinburgh'. The north side has a gable, large windows with strapwork and a Balcony. The coats of arms (the lions of Home and Dudley impaled on a lozenge) are displayed on this side of the building. Her linked initials, M and H, may be seen above the centre window on the south gable.

Writing of the Countess in 1882 W Kennedy said

"This lady belonged to the English house of Dudley and brought to the erection of the house a taste for architecture and gardening very different from that prevailing."

The architect of the house is not known.

The principal entrance to the house from the Canongate was the handsome gate with its massive rounded pillars surmounted by triangular stone obelisks. The door into the house was at the base of the octagonal stone stair tower on its west wall. The stair ends with a wooden balustrade, the newel post of which extends as a column supporting a saucer shaped ceiling with fine plaster work.

This stair still leads to the two principal first floor rooms of the original house. The smaller south facing room is now called the Cromwell Room, and the larger room the Balcony Room. These were probably the original dining and drawing rooms. Both rooms retain their original beautiful vaulted plaster ceilings. Such ceilings were particularly popular at the end of the 16th century and during the first half of the 17th century. The Cromwell Room's ceiling is divided into small panels each containing low reliefs of animals, flowers, figures, or heraldic beasts. Around the walls are 18th century paintings, the work of the French painter William Delacour.

The Balcony Room ceiling has substantial strapwork with panels containing a wide variety of motifs. Unusually, its ribs meet at a central pendant, with smaller pendants punctuating the ribs half way up.

The current Old Moray House developed from a group of three buildings of different ages originally grouped around a small courtyard. The earliest building was Mary, Countess of Home's 1618 mansion. The Regent's House to the east followed, probably before 1647. Finally the New House was built to the south in 1755.

Old Moray House, although much altered by its occupants down the centuries, is one of the few remaining original aristocratic houses built in the Canongate in the 16th and 17th century. An early print shows that the small internal close or courtyard was entered from the Canongate through a pend. The close opened in the south east corner to the garden. At one time the close was covered by an ornate 'lantern'. The pend has since disappeared and the close has now become the central stairwell. The same print also shows dormer windows in the north roof, which have been removed at some stage.

The Rev. James Gordon's map of 1647 shows the gateway from the Canongate and the close surrounded by buildings. Edgar's map, which was the first properly surveyed map of Edinburgh, (as revised 1765?) shows the three houses making up 'Old Moray House'. It also depicts the garden and Summer House. Mary, Countess Dowager Home's Garden was almost as famous as the house itself and for many years after it had become the property of the Earl of Moray was still known as 'Lady Home's Garden'.

[ top of page ]

.
The British Linen Company

In 1752 the Court of the British Linen Company recommended that the Directors seek a suitable building for the expanding work of the Company. Negotiations were undertaken with the Earl of Moray about the possibility of using Moray House as a warehouse. In 1752 a Tack was entered into for his Lordship's lodging in the Canongate for twenty five years to commence at Whitsunday. The house became a counting house, banking establishment and a linen warehouse. Rooms were altered to meet the requirements of traders, and for storing flax and other materials.

In 1755 the New House, or south wing, was built. Private tenants occupied the top floor, Lord Kames being the first.

It was from this period that the building became known as the British Linen Hall.

In 1791 the Company moved to other premises, except for some staff who remained in the Linen Hall until 1801.

.

[ top of page ]

.
The Free Church of Scotland Normal and Sessional School

In July 1845 the sale of Moray House was authorised by a private Act of Parliament in favour of the North British Railway Company. This sale by Francis, 10th Earl of Moray, broke the entail and two hundred years of connection with the Moray family. The purchase price was £2,500.

In October 1846 Dr Candlish on behalf of the Free Church of Scotland purchased the premises for the sum of £2,500 plus fees (£2,862 in total). James Moncrieff, Advocate, and other Trustees of the Free Church, arranged the purchase. The various buildings were planned to house the Free Church's Normal and Sessional School.

Extensive alterations were made during 1848/9, including changes to floor levels. In the Regent's House all partitions on the first and second floors were removed and windows altered. Two new windows on each floor were added. The first floor was lowered which led to the disappearance of the pend underneath. In the New House the second floor became a large classroom. The cost of all these works amounted to nearly £6,000.

An additional building, the New Hall, was added to the north east side of the upper garden in 1856.

This School at Moray House was opened on 13 September 1848. Bruce - Home's bird's eye view of 1856 (larger) shows the appearance of the house and grounds following these major changes.

Much could be written of life in the Sessional School and in the Demonstration School that succeeded it. Many of the Headmasters' log books still exist in the Moray House Archive.

.

Material compiled & edited 2002/03 by Hugh Perfect, Honorary Archivist, Moray House Archive and David Starsmeare
.

[ Top of Page | Estates Map Page | Maps, Estates & History - Intro | School Homepage ]