Steading building, northwest of Carsluith Castle

Former steading buildings flanking Carsluith Castle, dating from around the end of the 18th century and the early 19th century, with a later extension. The scheduled monument (SM90062) is excluded from this listing.

The complex consists of two pavilion buildings standing to either side of Carsluith Castle, positioned forward of its northeast elevation and linked to it by curtain walls, together with a separate steading range to the northwest.

The two pavilions are two-storey, rectangular structures with symmetrical piended roofs — that is, hipped roofs with sloping rather than gabled ends. They are built of painted rubble and have sash and case windows with mixed 12-pane and 4-pane glazing. Roofs are slated throughout, with stone ridge tiles, lead flashings and cast-iron rainwater goods. The west pavilion has a brick chimney.

Both pavilions have paired arches on their northeast faces and a single arch facing inward toward the space in front of the castle. The southeast pavilion has an additional single arch on its southeast wall. All of these arches are now blocked or partially blocked in rubble, though most have been pierced by smaller doors or windows. The round arches are of good quality and are stylistically characteristic of the years around 1800. It seems possible that some of the arches were always purely decorative and never open.

The southeast pavilion was originally a cart house and stable. A loft space above is accessed by external stairs to the rear, on the south side of the building. By 2016 it was in use as a café and the interior retained no evidence of its former agricultural use. The northwest pavilion is now in use as a dwelling house and has a single-storey lean-to addition to the west.

The detached steading range to the northwest is a single-storey building constructed in painted rubble with a slate roof. It was built in the early 19th century and extended to the south in the late 19th century to form an L-plan. By 2016 part of this building was in use as a stable. Its interior retains the simple character of a 19th-century farm building, with floors paved with setts.

The former steading buildings at Carsluith form an unusual agricultural complex laid out in a deliberate formal relationship with the earlier tower house, specifically designed to frame Carsluith Castle as their centrepiece — creating a striking symmetrical composition. The pavilions are relatively short, detached rectangular structures, an unusual plan form for farm buildings, positioned and designed so that the castle occupies the centre of the overall scheme. Their exteriors retain architectural features typical of their date, and they represent relatively early examples of Scottish farm buildings.

The buildings are part of a grouping of estate structures related to nearby Kirkdale House, situated approximately 2.5 kilometres to the southeast. Carsluith Castle was occupied by the Broun family until 1748, when the estate was sold first to Alistair Johnston and later to the Hannay family of Mochrum and Kirkdale. Kirkdale House was the Hannay family seat and was rebuilt to a design by Robert Adam in around 1787 to 1788. It is likely that the steading pavilions were planned around the castle after this date. The 1971 listing record suggests the pavilions date to the late 18th century; John Gifford, in The Buildings of Scotland, dates them to around 1800.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book for the parish, compiled in 1850, describes Carsluith as the property of Miss Hannay of Kirkdale, comprising a large farmhouse and outbuildings, with the castle described as situated on the farm of Carsluith. It is possible that the northwest pavilion was the farmhouse referred to. Both pavilions and most of the northwest building appear on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1850. By the time of the Second Edition survey in 1894, the northwest building had been extended to the southwest to form its current L-plan.

In the 15th to 17th centuries, small castles and tower houses were typically surrounded by a barmkin — a walled enclosure containing ancillary buildings such as a kitchen, outer hall and stables. The present pavilions occupy a location where such earlier buildings may previously have stood.

The setting of the former steading buildings is dominated by the remains of Carsluith Castle itself, a substantial 15th- to 16th-century stone structure with a courtyard area to the front, which is scheduled and in the care of Scottish Ministers. The immediate setting of the group has changed little since the time of construction. The buildings stand on a promontory in a commanding position overlooking Wigton Bay to the south and are protected by a natural ravine to the east.