69B Braid Road

It might be assumed that this little building was always the lodge to the mansion of Hermitage of Braid.

Seen in large on the lintel above the bricked-up doorway is the number 259, this refers, not to its current address, but to its previous situation as the tollhouse on Morningside Road, at the 'Brigs o' Braid', a mile and a half to the north.

It was built in 1861 when the toll was moved from Wrightshouses, near Tollcross, to allow residents movement within the town free of charge but it became obsolete in 1883 when all tolls in Scotland were abolished.

It was Sir John Skelton, owner of the Hermitage of Braid, who purchased the redundant tollhouse and in 1888 removed and rebuilt it, stone by stone, as the lodge to his estate at the Hermitage.