Auldtown Of Carnousie

This is an 18th-century farmhouse, reoriented in the early 19th century with a single-storey and attic addition and a 3-bay extension, built over a basement. The farmhouse is constructed of squared and coursed rubble with raised ashlar margins and classical detailing.

The south elevation showcases the early 19th-century wing, featuring an oversailing stair with a decorative cast-iron balustrade incorporating fan and wheel motifs. The tripartite doorway has a 6-panelled door framed by timber pilasters, flanked by 4-pane side lights and a delicate, traceried fanlight. Tall windows are positioned on either side of the doorway at ground floor level, while two smaller basement windows are punctuated by bull's-eye ventilators flanking the stair. Two contemporary, wooden, piended tripartite canted dormers, slate hung, top the attic. A window is present in each gable at ground floor level, with a later canted bay addition to the west. The earlier wing is located to the rear, where all openings have been enlarged and modern windows added, and a modern porch sits in the re-entrant angle. The windows are sash and case with a 12-pane glazing pattern. The roof has grey slates, ashlar coped skews, corniced ashlar stacks, and decorative cans.

This style of farmhouse, with its attic and basement, is commonly found further south in Aberdeenshire. Outbuildings are located to the south, forming a former steading. To the northeast, only the finialled gable end of the old schoolhouse remains, now incorporated within modern farm buildings, as noted by W.D. Simpson in 1936 and shown on Robertson’s Map of Banffshire from 1822.