Blackford Brae was opened July 1944 as a Dr Barnardo's home for small children. In January of 1966 it became a home for children with emotional difficulties. In February of 1969 it became a day care unit. December 1990 it became a children’s home with five residential places. Spring 1991 provided six residential places – thereafter at 91 South Oswald Road.

30/3 Childhood Memories a photographic history of Dr Barnardo's

So how did Blackford Brae come to be built Peter Niven a Barnardo's old boy investigated.

In July of 1871, one Richard Trotter granted a "feu charter" (an indefinite lease held for a fixed amount of rent) of over two acres of land to James Cuthbertson Cunningham, linseed manufacturer of Leith, on ,condition that the house erected thereon, would have a value of not less than £3,000 (about £130,000 by today's rates). Trotter's signature on what proved to be a very lengthy document was witnessed by both his butler and footman.

The completed building was a very grand affair in the Scottish Baronial style, with numerous crowsteps and pediments, set in extensive grounds. James Cunningham remained in residence at Blackford Brae, whence the house came into the ownership of' W. S. Davidson, General Manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company - it then passed to the ownership of C.A. Stitt of Broughton Soap Works - until 1932, when it became the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Henry Holland, Principal & Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh University.

The house was purchased in 1945 by Dr. Barnardo's Homes for the sum of £6000, and was then numbered as 31, South Oswald Road. Blackford Brae was opened after the war as a home for mixed toddlers - reverting to a home for the emotionally disturbed (children and adolescents) in 1966. In 1969, Blackford Brae became a day-care unit. In 1973, it was renumbered 31 - 91 South Oswald Road. The home was closed in 1994