Former Farmhouse And Attached Barn

The former farmhouse and attached barn, located at Old Brant Rake in Eskdale, date back to the 17th century with later alterations. The barn, built in the 19th century, features re-used 16th-century cruck trusses. The structure is made of random rubble with a diminishing slate roof, using large 19th-century slates for the house and smaller re-used slates for the barn, topped with a sandstone ridge. The building is two storeys tall and consists of a two-unit, through-pannage house with a later 17th-century rear outshut that contains the stairs.

The house has a regular three-window range, with all windows featuring small-paned part-opening casements. The first-floor windows have timber lintels, while the ground-floor windows, including the doorway, have rough stone cambered arches. There is a planked door and end stacks. The right side of the house is plain and features a low added buttress. The rear of the house includes an outshut that does not extend the full length of the house, covered by a catslide roof, and has two late 17th-century oak mullioned windows. This outshut partially blocks one of the original rear windows of the house. Between the house and barn, there are vertical masonry points. The barn has two doorways under flat lintels, a wagon entrance under a cambered arch, and two slit ventilators on the upper floor. The rear wall is plain with a single small opening.

Inside, a stone wall divides the two rooms at ground floor level. The right-hand room features a fireplace with a sandstone surround, remnants of a 19th-century cast-iron grate, and a complete rubble fire-hood visible on the first floor. There is a brick-lined bread oven to the right of the fireplace and recessed open shelving to the left. The ceiling beams are unchamfered, and the roof includes trenched purlins, a ridge piece, principal rafters, and tie beams. The barn is believed to contain re-used crucks, possibly from an earlier house on the site.