Cairn Robin, Birsemore

Cairn Robin is a later 19th-century, two-storey, attic, and roof terrace villa, built in a T-plan with gabled wings. The principal north elevation is constructed of tooled, coursed pink granite with ladder snecking, while the remainder is granite rubble with tooled dressings. A battered base defines the north side, and decorative ironwork finials adorn the apexes of the north gables. The eaves overhang, featuring timber barge boards.

The asymmetrical north elevation includes an advanced, gabled porch to the centre of the ground floor, featuring a decorative king-post piercing, a pointed-arched doorway with two granite steps, an iron bell-pull, a pointed-arched, rib-panelled timber door, and a pointed-arched diamond-pane window on the return. A four-pane window is positioned above the porch. The roof sweeps down to the first and attic floors in the centre, with a tripartite gabled dormer in the attic. A four-light canted window on the ground floor of the right-hand bay forms a balcony to a piend-roofed tripartite window that breaks the eaves at the first floor. A bipartite window is located on the ground floor of the left-hand bay, sheltered by a slate-roofed canopy with decorative timber brackets, and a tripartite window sits above it on the first floor. A circular tower adjoins the outer left angle, containing two windows on both the ground and first floors, topped with a conical fishscale tiled roof and a weathercock finial.

The asymmetrical west elevation is three bays wide, with an advanced gabled bay to the left and a gabled porch to the left of the ground floor. This porch features a window on its return, and a four-pane window above it. A window is on the return side of the bay. The centre bay has a ground-floor window and a bipartite stained-glass attic window under a catslide roof. A tripartite window on the ground floor defines the flanking bay on the right, with a gableted window breaking the eaves on the first floor.

The south elevation is also asymmetrical, with a gabled bay advanced to the left. A lean-to addition is on the ground floor, housing a timber door on the return and two-pane skylights in the roof. A four-pane window sits above the lean-to, off-centre. To the right, a decorative gableted window breaks the eaves on the first floor, and a tripartite dormer with a catslide roof is centred on the attic floor.

The east elevation presents two gabled bays. A window is off-centre to the left on the ground floor of the bay to the right, while the circular tower described above adjoins the outer right angle. A six-pane window is off-centre to the left on the ground floor of the bay to the left, and a four-light canted oriel window with a dentil-moulded cornice is positioned off-centre to the right on the first floor, above a six-pane window set into the gablehead of the attic floor.

A variety of small-pane timber sash and case and casement windows are present throughout. The roof is green-grey slate with a lead ridge, with coped granite gablehead, wallhead, and ridge stacks topped with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted.

The interior of the house was not inspected in 1999.

The property is enclosed by harl-pointed granite rubble boundary walls with rubble coping. A boarded timber ancillary structure is set into the wall to the southwest of the house, featuring a two-leaf timber door and a grey slate roof with rosemary tiling.