Upper Blackhill Farmhouse

Upper Blackhill Farmhouse is probably a 16th or early 17th century longhouse, which was remodelled and extended around the late 17th or 18th century and altered in the 19th century. It is built of old red sandstone rubble, coursed, with a limewashed front. The roof is of sandstone tiles, with gabled ends, while the extensions are clad in corrugated iron sheets. A stone gable end stack has a rebuilt brick shaft.

The original longhouse was built down a hillside, with the lower right-hand (south-east) end serving as a byre and the house part built into the hillside. Around the late 17th or 18th century, a potential through passage was enlarged with full-height doorways at the front and back, which reduced the size of the house, creating a separate front entrance and the gable end stack. Byres were added at either end, along with an outshut on the front of the original byre, all likely around the late 17th to 18th centuries. Later, in the 19th century, internal changes included the creation of a small, unheated room and a staircase partitioned off at the back, and chambers above.

The asymmetrical southwest front has two small casements, a doorway between them, a casement above, a 'through passage' doorway to the right, and the roof extends over an outshut as a catslide. An added southeastern byre has a lower roof and two doorways, one blocked. Another outbuilding was added at the northwest end, built on a higher ground level. The rear (northeast) has a wide doorway in the centre, a small casement to the right, and a 20th-century outbuilding attached to the left, concealing two ventilation slits.

Inside the lower gable end of the byre, a truncated blade of a cruck truss is embedded in the front corner. A complete 17th/18th century five-bay roof structure remains, with four tie-beam and queen-strut trusses, mortise and tenoned joints, a diagonal trenched ridgepiece, two tiers of trenched purlins, common rafters, and battens. A remarkable feature is a low screen on the lower side of the former through-passage, with a heavy wooden frame rebated for intact slate panels. Two splayed ventilation slits are in the rear wall of the original byre, and a small doorway is in the lower end wall. A stone flag floor is in the widened through-passage, within the house, and possibly in the byre. A 19th century range includes a pot-hanger.