West Outbuilding at Corse Croft, Kinnoir, Huntly

The west outbuilding at Corse Croft is a long, rectangular-plan, single-storey building thought to date from before 1782. It has a pitched roof that retains some oat straw thatch beneath a corrugated covering, and part of the southwest gable is built of turf blocks. It is now in use as a store and forms part of a group of detached crofting buildings arranged in a U-plan courtyard. The group is sited in a rural setting approximately three miles northeast of Huntly in Aberdeenshire.

The building is laid out in two sections. The southern part, which has a door and a window to the main east elevation, was formerly a cottage. The northern part, which has a higher ridge height, was the byre. The structure is built of random rubble field stones with clay mortar and larger stones at the base. The openings are edged by irregular rubble, timber, or later brick alterations. The south gable is built of rubble below sill level and regular courses of rectangular turf blocks above to the gable apex, which are laid grass-side down. The south gable has a single window in the lower left side and a later red brick chimneystack. The ends of quarter-sawn roof timbers are visible at the skews. There is an open lean-to wood store at the rear.

The shallow-pitched roof is largely covered by a secondary sheet of corrugated iron, with a similar corrugated sheet over the rear lean-to. The southernmost section of the main roof has lost its corrugated sheet and is covered in plastic sheet and supported on temporary metal supports (2017). The doors are boarded timber and the windows are various styles of vernacular timber-framed or fixed-pane glazing.

The interior of the south part of the building was seen in 2017. There is some loss of interior detailing as a result of its condition. The interior walls are clay-plastered and whitewashed. The southern gable has brick supports and chimneystack to a corbelled and plastered stone lum with an iron lintel and a segmental arched opening. There are remnants of a timber room divider and the northern half of the building retains some timber stall dividers. The roof structure comprises roughly sawn A-framed timber roof trusses, largely 20th-century replacements or insertions, set into the wallhead, with rough, quarter-sawn sarking boards. There is some oat straw thatch over the sarking, which is overlaid with clay in parts. Remnants of the timber boarded ceiling remain to the edges.

A dry-stone rubble boundary wall adjoins the southeast corner. There is a shorter, single-storey, rubble outbuilding with a corrugated roof to the east side of the courtyard, thought to date from the late 18th century. A single-storey farmhouse with attic forms the north part of the courtyard and is thought to date from around the mid-19th century. Both buildings appear to have been extensively altered, including early 21st-century extensions to the rear of the farmhouse.

The west outbuilding at Corse Croft, along with that across the courtyard to the east, are both first shown on Milne's 1782 plan of the Gordon Estate, labelled 'Crofts of Corse'. The west building is depicted as having a very long and narrow footprint with a large yard to the rear. By the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map, surveyed in 1871 and published in 1872, the footprint of the west building had been significantly reduced, largely matching that which survives today. From this map evidence, there is a possibility that the surviving turf gable may have once been an internal dividing wall. It may then have become an external gable when the building's footprint was reduced sometime in the late 18th or early to mid-19th century.

The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1872 also shows that by this time an additional building had been constructed to the north side of the courtyard. This is thought to be the present dwelling house. The map also shows a small walled garden to the north of the current house and a well behind the west building. A neighbouring croft is located around 200 metres to the west and the map names the two separate groups of buildings as the 'Crofts of Corse of Kinnoir'.

The Statistical Account of 1791-99 records that the Duke of Gordon was the proprietor of all the lands around Huntly in the late 18th century and it is believed that both crofts were in the ownership of the Gordon Estate until around 1918-1920. It was a tenant's responsibility to maintain their buildings irrespective of the landowner. The Statistical Account of 1791-99 records that small farmers around Huntly were poor and unlikely to have surplus funds to develop their buildings beyond the most basic requirements. This may be one reason why the Corse Croft building has largely remained in a simple late 18th-century form.

Historic Scotland Technical Advice Note 13 states that both oral tradition and the presence of a fireplace in the gable end indicate that the south end of the west outbuilding was originally a dwelling. This theory is supported by information from the current owner (2017) who understands that the south end of the building was lived in until just after the Second World War. Technical Advice Note 13 notes that RAF photographs from 1948 show that the buildings had corrugated roofs by that time.

Newspaper articles from the 1930s and 1940s record that Corse Croft was being actively farmed and its stock was being sold at auction marts in Huntly over that period. An advert in the Aberdeen Press and Journal from 1978 advertises a large sale at Corse Croft which included vehicles, farming implements, and household furniture. This suggests the late 1970s may have been the last time the croft was farmed and it is possible the building has been used for storage since that time.

Technical Advice Note 13 outlines the results of a survey that was undertaken to investigate the building's fabric around 1998. The corrugated sheet was removed from part of the east pitch and a technical analysis of the thatched roof was carried out. It was found that much of the loose material had fallen or gathered lower down the pitch and there was no thatch remaining in the top metre either side of the ridge. Some of the roof timbers were replaced as a result of the investigative works.

The survey recorded the full botanical analysis of the thatch, which found it was mainly made of oat straw with some broom to the eaves and overdoor. The conclusion from the report was that all of the structure above the sarking probably related to one thatching and that the building may have only been thatched once in its lifetime, apart from minor repairs. No conclusions were made regarding the age of the thatch covering but the oat straw sampled retained a reddish or pinkish hue. This is noted as a feature of some older varieties of oats that were grown from the late 18th century and into the early 20th century.

The report noted that it was likely that the corrugated sheet was added to the roof during the early 20th century. Following the investigative work of the survey, the condition of the thatch has further declined in the intervening years. In 2015 part of the corrugated roof was damaged in a storm and there are temporary props inside to support the roof.

The turf wall to the south gable was also the subject of a study in Historic Scotland Technical Advice Note 30 (2006), which related to Scottish turf construction. This study concludes that the turf wall is likely to be the oldest surviving part of the site, however it noted that it was possible that it was built to replace an earlier claywall gable which may have fallen down. The study notes that parts of the turf wall were repaired using traditional methods and materials around 1996. This was finished with a thrown mudwall harl and several coats of limewash but, by 1999, it was noted that the finish was cracking and the harl had broken away in several areas.

The present dwelling building to the north of the west outbuilding was substantially extended around 2007.