Former Creamery, Killylung

This former creamery and associated manager's house were built in 1922 as part of the Cowhill Estate and designed by John McLintock Bowie of Barbour and Bowie. Both buildings display an Arts and Crafts style combined with the stripped-back architectural character of the interwar period. They are constructed of red brick with rendered and painted white walls and exposed red brick details including base courses, eaves courses and margins. The creamery is L-shaped on plan, comprising a two-storey wing with a single-storey range to the north. The adjacent two-storey house is five bays with an off-centre advanced gabled entrance. The buildings are located in a rural area of Dumfriesshire, to the north of the village of Holywood, and form part of the lands of Cowhill Estate. They are sited on a rural road at the edge of a small farm at Killylung.

The Creamery

The principal east elevation of the former creamery comprises a two-storey entrance at the south end, recessed behind a segmental-headed opening with two large windows above. This is flanked by two advancing towers with narrow slit windows and parapets breaking through the eaves. The south and centre of the main elevation are on a raised platform, accessed via steps to the north and south. The south elevation has multiple bays with projecting brick piers defining each bay. The two end bays are advanced, with a single-storey lean-to extension between that has painted brick walls, a corrugated metal roof and large window openings. The end bays have three smaller windows at ground floor, and the east end bay is gabled with a round-arched window to the upper floor. The rear west elevation is two bays and is gabled with a large sliding door and projecting red brick piers breaking through the eaves. The north elevation has multiple bays with projecting brick piers defining each bay and larger windows on the ground floor.

The single-storey wing extends north and forms part of the main east elevation. It has multiple bays with a recessed section to the south end, supported by a brick column. There are a variety of window and door openings, including a later garage door and shopfront-style window to the north end. A later mono-pitched addition abuts the north gable. The rear west elevation is nine bays with evenly spaced window openings and a single door opening.

The slate roofs are largely piended or pitched with a swept profile. The roof over the entrance bay is pyramidal, with a catslide extending between the two towers of the main entrance. There are flat red sandstone copings, skews and skew putts to the parapets and gables. There is a single red brick chimney to the north end of the single-storey block, with a recessed painted and rendered base course. The walls have a red brick base course extending to cill level and the openings have plain surrounds with rounded brick cills. The windows are largely metal-framed, multi-paned fixed lights, with some casements. There is a mix of window sizes but the largest 36-pane windows are concentrated on the ground floor of the two-storey wing and above the main entrance (30-pane). The single-storey wing also has a mix of window sizes, including six 15-pane lights to the rear west elevation.

The interior of the creamery was not inspected, but images available online in 2022 show the two-storey block retains its original open-plan form, with exposed metal roof beams, original glazed tiles to the lower walls and exposed (some painted) brick detailing around the window and door openings.

The Manager's House

The principal west elevation of the former manager's house (now Killylung House) has an off-centre gabled entrance bay breaking the eaves, with red brick piers and red sandstone skews. There are terracotta-tiled canopies over the central openings and the upper window is set in a round-headed surround, decorated with terracotta tiles laid in a herringbone pattern. A red sandstone panel to the centre has a modern metal nameplate reading 'KILLYLUNG'. The remaining windows are symmetrically placed, except for a single oval window to the right. The north elevation is three bays and largely symmetrical, with windows framing an off-centre timber and glass door. The rear east elevation is five bays with a small brick and slate lean-to addition to the left of centre (added after 1965), with a timber door accessed via sunken steps and a blocked window to the left cheek. The windows are generally symmetrically spaced, with a stair window above the lean-to. The south elevation is two bays with a modern flue below first floor level.

The roof is piended and slated with a modern metal flue breaking the ridge line. The gabled entrance is pitched and slated with flat red sandstone skews and skewputts. The walls match those of the creamery building and the openings have red brick surrounds and round cills. The windows are 12-pane timber sash and cases, with a two-pane casement in the oval window. The main door is a two-leaf timber panel door with a four-pane transom light above, featuring cross motifs.

The interior of the house was inspected in 2021. The layout appears to have remained relatively unchanged, with principal rooms accessed from the central hall and stair, leading to some interconnected rooms. There is also a vaulted gun store on the ground floor with an original metal security door. The interior is plain throughout and the decorative scheme largely dates from the 21st century. There is a simple picture rail in most rooms and the curved stair has metal balusters and a timber handrail.

Ancillary Structures

To the north of the creamery building is a small red brick flat-roofed plant room, with an access ladder leading below ground level. There are a number of concrete footings remaining to the rear of the creamery.

Historical Development

The former Killylung Creamery and manager's house were built as part of the Cowhill Estate improvements in 1922. During a visit to the estate on 30th June 1922 by the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture, it was reported that the estate had undergone significant improvement works, including upgrading and modernising the farm steadings and the addition of 11 new farm cottages. It was also noted that "an extensive creamery and piggery is in course of erection near Holywood Station" with the intention being that all milk from the estate could then be processed into cheese at this centre and by-product used for fattening the pigs of the nearby piggery (The Scotsman, 30 June 1922).

The creamery is first shown on the Ordnance Survey Popular Edition map (revised 1922, published 1925) as an L-plan building. The house is not shown on this map, and it is likely the creamery was built first, shortly followed by the house. The house was built by 1923, as the door to the gun store retains a sign stating: "Entered into occupation of this office from Muirside on Monday 4th June 1923".

In 1926 the creamery was visited by former students of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture, who were touring Dumfriesshire. The visit was described in the Aberdeen Press and Journal (25 June 1926), which noted that "a large creamery on the estate is run in conjunction with a herd of Ayrshire cattle, and pig-rearing and fattening is carried on."

By 1929 the creamery was tenanted by United Dairies (Limited), as confirmed at the annual sitting of Dumfriesshire Valuation Appeal Court (The Scotsman, 12 September 1929). By 1930 the creamery was run by United Dairies (Scotland) Limited and was placed third in the Factory Cheese category in the Ayrshire Agricultural Association Show (The Scotsman, 24 October 1930). The creamery is mentioned in a variety of other newspaper articles through to the 1950s, known initially as Cowhill Creamery and then Holywood Creamery.

It is unclear when the creamery closed, but it appears to have been in operation as part of United Dairies (Scotland) Limited until at least the mid-1950s. In a 1954 newspaper article about the proposed buyout of Scottish Farmers Corporation Limited, of which United Dairies (Scotland) Limited was a subsidiary, the business is described as operating a "substantial retail and wholesale milk distribution business in Glasgow and a small country creamery in Dumfriesshire" (Birmingham Daily Post, 30 July 1954).

The Ordnance Survey National Grid map (revised 1965, published 1966) is the first detailed map showing the buildings as they are today, and shows that the lean-to addition to the north gable of the creamery and the detached single-storey plant building to the north both pre-date 1965. The lean-to at the rear of the manager's house is not shown on this map and was thought to have been added at a later date.

The house acted as the estate office until recent years. The building has since been refurbished and is now a dwelling house. The creamery building is currently partly used as a workshop and partly unoccupied. Part of the roof of the building has been replaced or re-slated in the early 21st century, and around this time a small piended dormer window in the roof of the principal east elevation was removed.