Stables, Old Brig Inn, Beattock

Stables, Old Brig Inn, Beattock

A Grade A listed building designed by Thomas Telford and built in 1821 as a coaching inn with associated stable courtyard. The inn was constructed at Government expense in connection with the Glasgow to Carlisle road improvement. Documentary evidence from the National Archives records that Telford was directly involved, with initial funding requests of £1,800 to £2,000 for the building to his plan; the final construction cost was £4,520:2:10.

The main inn building is a two-storey structure of irregular U-plan set on a slope, with a symmetrical five-bay east front. It is constructed of coursed and partly cherry-caulked squared whin rubble with contrasting painted ashlar margins and long and short worked dressings. The basement sits at courtyard level to the rear west, below road level.

The east elevation features a central doorway flanked by two baseless Tuscan columns in antis supporting an entablature, with a blind tripartite window above. The remaining bays contain single sash windows with 12-pane glazing pattern, each corniced and aproned at ground level with margins linked to the base course. The three-bay flanks, particularly the wider north flank, continue these aprons and incorporate tripartite windows to the inner bay. An eaves course, cornice and blocking course runs across all elevations, with the blocking course raised centrally above the main door. Symmetrically placed chimney stacks, set in pairs and linked by arches, rise from the roofline. The roof is piended slate with a leaded platform. A round-headed window facing west punctuates the wall between the rear wings, lighting a stair.

The interior contains hallways with arched openings, a cantilevered stone stair with cast-iron balustrade, and a vestibule screened by Tuscan columns. The reception room includes a key-safe and moulded cornice plasterwork. The basement contains a vaulted cellar and cast-iron ovens in the kitchen.

The stables are two storeys high, constructed of whitewashed whin rubble with ashlar dressings, with upper openings to lofts. Originally, two adjoining ranges surrounded a courtyard; the south end was later closed by a plain mid-19th-century skewed range. The north range features a wide depressed-arched pend. The five-bay west range comprises a three-bay carriage house with tall square-headed openings and a narrow pend to the midden with a depressed archway on its west wall. A full-height wing, added later, returns west from the south end. All ranges are roofed with graded slates.

The building was formerly known as Beattock Inn. Its grade was changed from B to A on 22 February 1988.