Fairlinch

Fairlinch is a farmhouse built in 1629, as recorded by a datestone on the porch. The building has been extended at the rear in the late 18th century and had a rendered extension to its front rebuilt in the 20th century.

The main structure is constructed of rubble stone with a slate roof, hipped to the left end of the main range and gabled at the extensions. The late 18th-century extension is built in brick with slate roof. The original plan was a single-depth through-passage design with a 2-storey porch at the front and a lateral stack to the rear. A right-angled extension to the front right end forms an L-shape, while the 19th-century extension to the rear, set at right angles to the left end of the main range, creates an overall Z-shaped plan.

The main range formerly presented a 4-window front on both storeys, though the left-side openings are now blocked on both floors. The 2-storey porch is crenellated and features a sash window with 8 over 8 panes, with a datestone and heraldic shield in stone set above. The porch archway is of dressed stone with rounded profile. Behind the porch is a 17th-century inner doorway with moulded surround and scroll stops, retaining the original door with cover strips. To the right of the porch are two sash windows on each floor, all 8 over 8 panes.

The L-shaped extension includes sash windows of 8 over 8 panes above double sash windows of 6 over 6 panes to the left and 8 over 12 panes to the right. There are three bays of sashes with 8 over 8 panes above an 8 over 12-pane sash to the left of a 20th-century door. The south-facing late 18th-century extension has two sashes on each floor: 8 over 8 panes to the upper storey and 8 over 12 panes to the ground floor.

Interior

The main range contains fine rooms on each floor to the left of the through-passage. The ground-floor room features 17th-century panelling on all four walls, four panels high, with interwoven griffins in the cornice. A particularly notable chimneypiece, dated 1635, displays four carved figures representing Faith, Hope, Charity and Justice with two heralds in low relief flanking them and a central heraldic shield of the Burgoyne family. The piece features a horseshoe-shaped decorative iron canopy and grate. An enriched round-arched niche occupies the position of a blocked window on the opposing wall. Enriched plaster mouldings run across two transverse ceiling beams, each supported at its ends on Corinthian pilasters. The initials of M Burgoyne appear above a doorway.

The chamber above contains a rich 17th-century ornamental plasterwork ceiling of geometrical strapwork design, which runs out from two central pendants surviving only as truncated bosses. Six of the panels are decorated with naturalistic scenes; the corner panels feature various birds, one central panel shows lions, and the other depicts a fox and hounds. The cornice to the coved sides and end walls features strapwork design, with mouldings running over each face of the two trusses; the inner wall bears the Burgoyne shield.

Six 17th-century roof trusses support the main range. They were formerly equipped with two tiers of threaded purlins, some of which have been reused and are now trenched. The room to the right of the cross-passage retains unmoulded horizontal boarding.

The late 18th-century extension preserves many original features, including an open-well staircase lit by a large Venetian window, with original treads, moulded string, handrail, and turned balusters. The hall features a dentilled cornice. The principal room is notable for its chimneypiece with an eared surround and a central plaque with swag decoration, surmounted by an ornate wrought-iron hood and grate.