Snabdaugh Farmhouse And Attached Cottage

Snabdaugh Farmhouse and the attached cottage are likely from the 15th or early 16th century, with additions made in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The older sections are constructed of squared stone and rendered, while the later parts feature dressed stone and Welsh slate roofs. The building is divided into three sections.

The central section serves as a medieval fortified house, standing two storeys high with two windows. It has a deep offset above the ground floor and a steeply-pitched gabled roof with a stack at the left end. The right section, dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries, is also two storeys and has two bays, featuring a panelled door with an overlight to the left and a sash window on each floor to the right. The 18th-century cottage on the left has 20th-century windows.

Inside the older part, the walls are approximately 5 feet thick on the ground floor and slightly thinner on the first floor. The house features a pointed tunnel vault at the second floor level, with the roof laid directly on the vault. The side walls taper continuously from the ground to the springing of the vault. The beams supporting the second floor or attic rest on stone corbels inserted into the vault, with eight corbels on each side but only five beams. Above the attic floor on the south side, the round rere arches of two first-floor windows are just visible. In the attic's east gable, there is a window embrasure with two window seats, a blocked square window rebated for shutters, and a lintel on chamfered corbels. The west gable features a large chimney breast with smoke-blackening on the outside, possibly indicating a former chimney. To the right of this is a large opening that likely led down to a stairwell; at its head is the springing of a second lower vault made of finer ashlar.

This house appears to be unique as a domestic building in England, although it can be compared to the nave of Boltongate Church in Cumberland, which is said to be influenced by Scottish models. Among Scottish buildings with a top-floor vault, Smailholm Tower in Roxburghshire is attributed to the 16th century.