Cattle Shed, Crichton Farm, Dumfries

Crichton Royal Farm is an extensive former institutional farm complex on the southern outskirts of Dumfries, within the site of the former Crichton Royal Institution. It was designed by John Davidson and erected between 1890 and 1893. The buildings are largely constructed of snecked bull-faced red sandstone with ashlar dressings, crowstepped gables and slate roofs, and they remain in use as part of Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) Dairy Research Centre.

The complex comprises several distinct elements. The main block, known as Solway House, is a four-range building arranged around a quadrangular open courtyard, linked by taller crow-stepped gabled corner towers. To the north sits a detached single-storey range known as Criffel View, dating from 1898. To the south is a steading range comprising a U-plan byre built around a large barn, with a freestanding cattle shed to the east. A screen wall with square gatepiers links Solway House to the steading at the west.

SOLWAY HOUSE

The main north elevation of Solway House is fifteen bays wide and symmetrically arranged. It is a two-storey range with attic, framed by projecting crowstep-gabled outer blocks rising an additional storey. At the centre stands a narrow four-stage clock tower with corbelling and crowstepped gables. The openings to each bay are set within tall, shallow round-arched recesses, and there are round-headed attic dormers. The east, west and south elevations are single-storey with attics. The south corners have tall crowstep-gabled blocks similar to those at the north corners. The west range features arcaded shallow panels to its west elevation. The courtyard elevation of the north range has segmental-arched openings and gabled dormers. Two lower, piend-roofed blocks adjoin the south face of the south range. A segmental-arched pend gives access to the courtyard from the east. The roofs are largely pitched and slated with long ventilators. Windows are generally six-pane timber sliding sashes.

CRIFFEL VIEW

Criffel View lies to the northeast of Solway House and is a single-storey linear block orientated north to south. Its main west elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a projecting central range comprising a crowstepped central bay and canted outer bays with pyramidal roofs, all intersected by a glazed veranda. There are flat-roofed extensions to the re-entrant angles of the end bays and a piended extension to the rear.

STEADING RANGE

The steading range to the south of Solway House presents five crowstepped gables to its north elevation, each with a louvred slit in the gable head. The inner three gables form the barn and are adjoining, with a depressed-arched gateway to the centre flanked by fish-tailed crosslet dummy gun loops. The barn walls are low and the roof is supported on cast iron columns. The U-plan byre wraps around the sides and south of the barn and largely has square-headed doors and segmental-arched windows. The inner walls are tiled, mostly in contrasting brown and white glaze, and there are rails for a dung trolley and for feeding.

CATTLE SHED

The freestanding cattle shed to the east of the steading has an M-profile piended corrugated iron roof, carried on cast iron columns, with later infill walling and cladding.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Crichton Royal Farm was developed as part of the psychiatric treatment facilities of the Crichton Royal Institution, which had been established in the 1830s from the bequest of Dr James Crichton. The institution was founded by Elizabeth Grierson Crichton using money left by her husband. The institution first took up farming in 1867 when it purchased the neighbouring Brownhall Farm, and it expanded further under Dr James Rutherford, who was superintendent from 1879 to 1914. New treatment methods and care arrangements, based on the villa colony system established in Germany, led to a group of new buildings being developed south of Crichton Hall in the 1890s. These included Crichton Farm, Crichton Memorial Church, a new laundry block (Johnston House), an artesian well, an electricity station, and extensions to Crichton Hall — all forming the first stage of a project to expand the asylum on modern lines, with departments for different classes of patients.

John Davidson, who was the Clerk of Works at the Crichton Royal Institution, was commissioned by Rutherford to design Crichton Farm. He was advised by Colonel R. F. Dudgeon, and the design was modelled on the farm buildings at Woodilee Asylum at Lenzie and on a farm steading on the Isle Estate, Kirkcudbright. The completed group — including Solway House, the barn and byre, and the cattle shed — provided farming work and accommodation for 80 male patients, and produced food for the institution. A Farm Annexe, intended to provide daytime accommodation for male pauper patients working on the farm, was begun in 1898 to the designs of Sydney Mitchell and Wilson. This building became known successively as Nithsdale House and then Criffel View.

Crichton Farm first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1899 (published 1900), showing the courtyard arrangement of the principal accommodation block (renamed Solway House in 1953), the detached block to the north (Criffel View), the steading range to the south, and a single cattle shed to the southeast.

By the time of the 1929 Ordnance Survey map (published 1931), the farm had been expanded and a series of detached villa buildings had been added to the grounds to the north and east. Solway House and the rear steading remained largely unaltered, but the cattle shed had been extended to the east and a number of ancillary farm buildings had been added to the south. Criffel View had received several early 20th century additions, including a large conservatory spanning the length of the main elevation — since removed and replaced with a smaller glazed veranda. At this time the building was connected by a small link block to a new nurses' home built in 1924 (Hestan House), though this link has since been removed. The dairy workers' cottages had also been built by this date, to the west of the steading range, and the boiler house is shown to the east of Solway House.

The National Grid map of 1966 (published 1967) and modern aerial maps show that a substantial expansion of farm ancillaries took place to the south and southeast during the second half of the 20th century. In 1975 the West of Scotland College of Agriculture took over the farm, which is now run by Scotland's Rural College. Sydney Mitchell and Wilson appear to have had some involvement in the design of the farm buildings between 1890 and 1908, though the extent of this is unknown.

The farm is also of interest for its agricultural innovation: it was involved in several farming experiments involving milk, cattle feeding, breeding and potato culture. A milking machine was installed in 1907 and a silo for silage in 1925, both at a time when these features were not common in Scotland.

The exterior of Solway House and the steading range remain largely unaltered. There has been some insertion of replacement fabric throughout much of the main building, though this is common for a building of this date and type. The simplicity of the internal treatment and plan form is largely retained, which is typical for institutional buildings of this period. Some internal changes have been made to the farm steading and the barn walls, and to the plan form of Criffel View, as would be expected for agricultural and institutional buildings in continuous use since the late 19th century.

The wider farm site has been altered by incremental additions to the rear and east, including the Hospital Boiler building of 1948, which stands immediately to the east of Solway House on the same building platform. This building, listed at category C, follows the line of the main elevation and its design repeats the architectural themes of the earlier building. Later agricultural buildings to the south and southeast are excluded from the listing, as are extensions to the cattle shed and a red brick building to the east. The Rosehall Walled Garden to the south and all other agricultural buildings to the south and southeast are also excluded.

The listed elements comprise Solway House, Criffel View, the steading range to the south, the cattle shed to the southeast, and the screen walls and gatepiers between Solway House and the steading.