Low House And Barn Attached To Rear

This is a farmhouse with a barn attached to the rear, situated in Gardsale. The main part of the house probably dates from the mid to later 17th century, with a cottage addition likely built in the earlier 19th century. Alterations have been made over time. The construction uses roughly coursed, heavily plastered rubble, topped with a graduated slate roof.

The building has a single-depth, two-unit plan arranged along an east-west axis, facing south. There is a one-unit addition to the east end, and an outshut extends along the whole range to the rear. The exterior has two storeys and two windows. A large, single-storey gabled porch is offset to the left, with a square-headed doorway to the right and three tiers of pigeon holes in the gable above, and a row of similar pigeon holes along the wall above the porch. There are small 16-pane sash windows on each floor on the left side, and a larger 16-pane square sash window at ground floor level on the right. The added bay to the right has a doorway flanked by 6-pane sashes on both floors. A substantial ridge chimney is located at the junction of the main block and the addition, with gable chimneys at both ends of the main house. A passage runs under a short link to the former stable to the west corner of the house. The rear outshut has a catslide roof and features altered windows and a tall chimney with a cylindrical shaft. The long barn attached to the rear wing has slit ventilation openings and various doorways.

Inside the house, the second bay contains a large 18th-century fireplace with a corbelled lintel and moulded cornice. This fireplace originally contained an ogee-arched sooker stone, most of which is now obscured by a 20th-century range. Flanking the fireplace are spice cupboards: the left one has a pair of small shaped fielded-panel doors and a drawer above with a 17th-century arcaded front, and the right one has a single square fielded panel. The ground-floor room within the added east bay has a large 19th-century stone fireplace, which backs onto the other, containing a cast-iron oven-and-boiler range. Attached to the opposite wall is a fine court cupboard with butterfly hinges on its doors, carved decoration including lozenges and scrollwork, and an overhanging top stage with a frieze inscribed "HLI 1654". The house forms a group with the former stable attached to the southwest corner, a garden shelter approximately 50 meters southwest, and a barn located on the east side of the entrance drive.