Low Birks

Low Birks is a pair of millworkers' cottages with an attached stable, now functioning as a house and cottage. The building dates from 1762, as indicated by a date stone on the first floor. The facade has been largely rebuilt, and the former stable was remodeled and integrated with the house in 1980. It is constructed of coursed mixed rubble with quoins at the junction with the cottage on the left, although the former quoins at the junction with the stable on the right were removed during the rebuilding. The roof is made of stone slate.

The house is one-and-a-half storeys deep and consists of two units, while the cottage to the left also has two units, and the former stable to the right is a single unit. The exterior features two storeys with a symmetrical design and a slate band over the ground floor. The doorway and flanking windows have shallow triangular-arched heads with rubble voussoirs. The first-floor windows have straight stone lintels, and all windows are now 2-light casements with glazing bars, replacing the former horizontal-sliding sashes. Centrally located on the first floor is a re-set date stone inscribed "H / C E / 1762". There are chimneys at both original gables. The cottage to the left has a gabled porch and two casement windows with altered glazing on each floor. The former stable to the right features a 2-light casement with glazing bars on both floors. At the rear, the house has a central stair-window flanked by two windows on each floor.

Inside, despite the significant rebuilding of the front wall, many original features remain, including a fireplace with a corbelled lintel in the rear right-hand room, built-in 18th-century cupboards in both front rooms, a staircase with muntin-and-plank side panelling, first-floor doors with fielded panels, and two pegged collar trusses in the roof.