Steading, Murroes Farm, Murroes

Steading, Murroes Farm, Murroes

This substantial complex of agricultural buildings comprises three principal elements: a steading dated 1793 at the east, imposing mill buildings and further steading at the west (possibly late 18th century and incorporating a threshing barn formerly dated 1811), and a farmhouse formed from the service wing of a demolished earlier 19th-century farmhouse.

STEADING

The steading is a single-storey building of quadrangular plan, constructed of buff and pink rubble sandstone with irregular ashlar dressings. The roof is of corrugated asbestos and bitumen tile, repaired with various materials on the north range.

The west range is asymmetrical. A central block, possibly incorporating earlier farmhouse elements, features an off-centre entrance door with tooled and margined quoins and what appears to be a date marking on the lintel. To its left is a window with solid timber shutters at the bottom and fixed 6-pane glazing at the top; a similar window at right has 4 panes, with a multi-pane window further right. A door to a lean-to bay occupies the outer right.

The south range contains a vehicle entrance at centre with timber lintel and flanking anchor plates. At the left is a 4-bay cart shed with 3 anchor plates at wallhead (1st floor demolished); to the right are a door to a former bothy and a stable door at the far right.

The east range comprises a long, low bay with a re-used quoin at the left dated 1716, brick reveals to a door at centre, and a gable at right with large 2-leaf corrugated metal cart doors. A later rubble and brick shed with a large opening is advanced at the far right.

The north range consists of a shed as above, advanced at the left and masking part of an earlier, lower blank range. The building is constructed on falling ground.

In the interior, a stone canopy chimney survives in the former bothy at the south range.

MILL BUILDINGS

The mill buildings form a 2-storey structure with basement wheelhouse, built on falling ground, and comprise an irregular quadrangular-plan mill and steading. Construction is of coursed and random rubble with rough-hewn quoins and dressings. Roofs are of grey slate, bitumen tile, corrugated metal, and asbestos, with various rooflights. Windows and openings have dilapidated frames of various designs, some boarded. The east range features flat-coped skews.

The east (threshing barn) range has a projecting piended-roof bay at centre with a door at the right return (entering at 1st floor level). A cart entrance at the left return has an altered arched lintel and blocked opening above, with a small ground-floor opening at the left. The main block recessed at left has an enlarged entrance opening with sliding door at right, arrow slit ventilators at ground and 1st floor left, and a return gable at far left with a window at ground and 1st floor and block finial (formerly dated). The main block recessed at right features a later entrance opening breaking through the eaves with 2 sliding doors and flat roof; a return gable at far right has a window at left and arrow slit ventilator at 1st floor centre, with block finial.

The west elevation is mostly masked by the north range at right. It displays 3 windows at ground floor and 1 at 1st floor, with a small opening at ground floor left that may be a bee-bole recess or opening to a hen-house.

The north range has an off-centre cart entrance with irregular voussoirs, probably widened from a narrower original entrance. A window appears at far left, 2 windows at right, and 4 regularly disposed openings at 1st floor. The basement at right steps out in 2 stages, with a lade entrance at ground level at far right.

The west range contains an entrance door and window to the wheelhouse at a stepped-out basement at left, with 2 windows at 1st floor above and 1 at far right.

The south range features paired bee-boles at left with a single remaining security bar.

The interior elevations have been altered, and the court is covered with corrugated metal. Mill machinery and some floors have been removed. The wheel house retains a barrel-vaulted ceiling.

FARMHOUSE

The farmhouse is a single and 2-storey structure adjoining the south range of the mill buildings at the east. It is built of rubble sandstone, harled at the south gable, with a roof of grey slate and corrugated asbestos, and rebuilt brick stacks. Windows are 4-pane sash and case, some margined. A sawtooth skew gable with end stack appears at the north.

The east elevation features a single-storey projection with window and flat roof at left, a door and 2 windows with piend roof at right, and a window at the right return. The main building has 2 windows at 1st floor, with a single-storey block recessed at right containing a door and bipartite window. Large 2-leaf doors appear at far right in an adjoining gable of the south range of the mill buildings.

The west elevation has a modern porch masking the entrance door of a single-storey block at left. The main block at right displays 4 windows at ground floor and 3 at 1st floor (bipartite at left), with a wallhead stack at right.

OUTHOUSE

To the west of the west range stands an outhouse, single storey and rubble-built with a mono-pitch roof of grey slates and a door at the south.