Lying 3 miles (5 km) south of the centre of Edinburgh, Mortonhall House is a somewhat austere house which was built in 1769 for the Trotter family, who were merchants in the city. The architect was John Baxter, who created a three-storey building with five bays, the middle three of which project and are capped by a pediment.
The house was altered in 1835, including the addition of a Doric porch. Inside there are fine rooms styled in the late 18th C., of particular note is the Drawing Room, which features some fine pastoral scenes of c.1840 by noted interior decorator Thomas Bonnar (1810 - 73).
The house was used as a nursing home for some years, but more recently has been converted into flats.
Morton House, to the southwest, was built as a dower house by the Trotters in the early 18th century.