Leuchland Farmhouse, near Brechin

Leuchland Farmhouse is a two-storey-and-attic, three-bay, symmetrical-fronted, rectangular-plan farmhouse dating from around 1820, located east of the town of Brechin, off the A935, and accessed via a track. It is not visible from the main road. The land and farming at Leuchland formed part of the large tenanted farm holdings of Southesk Estate for over two hundred years.

The farmhouse is built in cherry caulked sandstone — a regionally distinctive material characteristic of Angus — with long and short window margins and slightly projecting sandstone cills. The front (southeast) elevation is symmetrical and restrained in its classical design, with a central entrance featuring a panelled timber door, a rectangular fanlight, and a smooth ashlar surround, all set within a doorpiece with tapering Doric columns and a moulded rectangular plinth. The first-floor windows are set close to the roof eaves, which is typical of early 19th-century farmhouse design. There is a rear (northeast) entrance with a moulded timber and slated canopy.

The window openings in each gable and at the rear of the building are irregularly spaced. The windows are predominantly 12-pane sash and case throughout, with windows of varying sizes in the two-storey rear addition. Two dummy windows are painted onto the southwest gable, and each gable has small plate glass attic windows.

The slated roof has straight skews and moulded skewputts, with a single rooflight in the southeast pitch. There are corniced gable-end chimneystacks with clay cans on the earlier block, and a ridge chimneystack on the two-storey rear addition.

There are a variety of later additions to the rear, including a rectangular two-storey addition (slightly different in scale, style, and stonework from the main farmhouse, with shorter and wider proportions and irregularly spaced windows), a single-storey attached shed with a sliding entrance door, and a detached single-storey store with a mono-pitch roof and timber boarding below the eaves. All of these additions were in place by 1863, as shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1863, published 1890), placing them within around 50 years of the farmhouse being built. The two-storey addition was likely added to increase accommodation for workers or offices, and the single-storey additions are of a practical design typical of storage buildings.

The interior was inspected in 2019 and retains features from its 19th-century decorative scheme. The main entrance opens into a vestibule with decorative pilasters. The house has been divided into two living spaces. The rooms in the southern part retain moulded cornicing and timber six-panel doors with moulded architraves. There is a central half-turn staircase with landings, moulded spindle balusters, and a timber handrail. The detailing in the northern part of the house is plainer and appears to be of a slightly later date; these rooms are accessed by a later second stair in the rear addition. Timber fire surrounds are found throughout, some with tiled insets. The attic is accessed by a narrow service stair. Despite the partition of rooms, the early 19th-century plan form remains legible through the survival of the central stair, the large principal rooms, and the service area on the attic floor.

In the garden there are sections of rubble walls to the northwest, fragmentary remains of metal railings in the northwest corner, and a second smaller raised area to the northeast of the farmhouse enclosed by a low rough rubble wall and accessed by steps.

The farmhouse is set within its own garden surrounded by mature trees and rhododendron bushes, a layout largely unchanged from that shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. The farmhouse is detached from the working areas of the farm — its principal elevation deliberately facing away from the steading — which reflects the social and agricultural character of prosperous Angus farming in this period, where a marked separation between farmhouse and steading was common. The associated steading buildings to the north (which are excluded from the listing) allow the former function and historic relationship between house and farm to be understood. An early 20th-century cottage was subsequently built at the Leuchland junction with the A935, but Leuchland Farmhouse remains part of a coherent and readable agricultural complex.

Pre-19th-century maps suggest the farm may be of an earlier date, and the farmhouse may contain earlier fabric, but stylistically it presents as an early 19th-century building. The Ordnance Survey Name Book, written between 1857 and 1861, describes Leuchland as "a very fine farmhouse and steading," indicating the farm was sizeable in the area. Later Ordnance Survey maps (revised 1901, 1922, and 1967) show the farmhouse footprint remaining largely unaltered. The steading to the north changed from a courtyard layout shown on the 1st Edition map to one large irregular covered complex by the 2nd Edition (revised 1901), consistent with the late 19th- and early 20th-century practice of redeveloping steadings to house more cattle.

The listing category was changed from B to C and the listed building record revised in 2019. The steading to the north of Leuchland Farmhouse is excluded from the listing under Section 1(4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.