West Lynch Cottage

West Lynch Cottage is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating to approximately the late 15th or early 16th century. It has undergone significant remodelling in the late 16th or early 17th century, followed by further alterations in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The external walls are rendered, and the roof is covered with concrete tiles and gabled ends. The building features rendered gable-end and lateral stacks, with a rebuilt, rounded shaft to the front lateral stack.

The original plan consisted of a three-room-and-cross-passage configuration, with a small, low service room to the northwest and a parlour to the right (southeast), each originally heated by gable-end stacks. A floor was inserted in the hall in the late 16th or early 17th century, resulting in a lateral stack at the front. The chamber above the parlour was jettied into the hall. The parlour itself was rebuilt in the 17th century, incorporating a stair-turret to the side of the stack. It is possible the service end of the house was originally situated at the southeast end, with the entire layout being rotated during the remodelling. Subsequent additions include a single-story extension from the 18th or 19th century at the northwest end, a small 19th-century addition behind the parlour, a small 20th-century extension on the side of the stair-turret, and another small, two-story extension at the northwest end.

The exterior presents a long, asymmetrical facade with a four-window range on the upper floor and one window on the ground floor. It features 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars, a projecting lateral stack to the right of center, a doorway with a plank door and a 20th-century canopy to its left, and a rounded stair-turret with a 20th-century bay window under a lean-to roof. A single-story outshut and a two-story hipped roof extension are located on the left end.

Inside, the hall/cross-passage is divided by a plank-and-muntin screen with a shouldered arch doorway, and a similar screen forms an entrance lobby at the back of the passage. The hall/parlour partition is plastered and features a shouldered arch doorway and a deeply chamfered jetty beam overhead. The hall contains deeply chamfered axial and half-beams, and a large lateral fireplace with a circa early to mid-19th century chimneypiece. A circa 18th or 19th-century enclosed stair is in the hall. The parlour has ovolo-moulded ceiling beams with rounded stops, and an ovolo-moulded cambered fireplace lintel. The newel staircase within the turret was altered in the 20th century. Partitions were inserted in the 17th century, and at the southeast end, there are two roof trusses with principals halved and crossed at the apexes and with trenched purlins; the rest of the roof was replaced in the 20th century.