Overview of Inch House

Located a quarter-mile (0.5 km) southeast of Cameron Toll and 2 miles (3 km) southeast of the centre of Edinburgh, Inch House (also The Inch), is much altered 17th century L-plan tower house comprising three storeys and a garret. It now lies in Inch Park, adjacent to a public housing estate to the south, also known as the Inch, both located on the estate which once belonged to the house. King James II granted these lands of the Inch to Holyrood Abbey in the 15th century. By early 17th century the estate had passed to the Winram family and it was James Windram who built the oldest section of the current house in 1617, on an island surrounded by the Braid Burn, most-likely incorporating an earlier structure. Inch House was extended to the northeast in 1634 and held out against Oliver Cromwell's invading army in 1650. It passed to the Gilmours of Craigmillar Castle in 1660 and was used to quarter government troops sent to put down the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The Gilmours added a west wing in the 18th century and commissioned architectural historians MacGibbon & Ross to significantly extend and remodel the property in 1891.

The Gilmours sold the property to Edinburgh Corporation in 1946 and it served first as a primary school and then, from 1968, as a community centre. It was damaged by fire in 1973, but subsequently restored. The City of Edinburgh Council nursery, which includes a training centre, lies adjacent.