Garden Walls And Gatepiers, Steading, The Braes Farmhouse

The garden walls and gatepiers at Steading, The Braes Farmhouse, date back to 1737. They are part of a 2-storey, 3-bay house that features a pedimented and bolection-moulded doorway, with 19th and 20th century additions. The house has a rectangular plan and a gabled roof, positioned at right angles to a barn and byre to the southeast. There is a quadrangular garden enclosure to the south, which includes the gatepiers.

The walls are constructed of whitewashed rubble with ashlar dressings, and the house has painted margins and slated roofs. The south elevation of the house features a central modern door set within double-lugged bolection moulding, with the date inscribed on the frieze. It has a steep-pitched pediment adorned with an entwined monogram and sash windows throughout that have chamfered margins. There is an eaves and lintel band, with skew moulding running horizontally below the rebuilt stacks and stepping at the eaves to connect with the cornice.

A full-height transverse wing on the west gable, likely built in the early 19th century, forms an L-plan with the house. A modern low addition is attached to the west, while a garage to the east incorporates a stone-built wall at the south and features a full-width modern addition at the rear.

Inside, the interior has been much altered, but it still retains a good swagged later 18th century chimneypiece in the sitting room, along with a marble chimneypiece sourced from Halleaths.

The byre and barn, both dating from the earlier to mid-18th century, are linked by a shed. The byre, which connects to the garage, has a modern addition to the east and a 2-storey west elevation. The north gable of the byre features two horizontal tiers of square dovecot flight-holes. The barn has regularly spaced slit ventilators and a large central doorway on its north wall.

The garden walls are topped with ashlar coping and have a blocked doorway to the east with a lintel dated 1731. The corniced square gatepiers are painted ashlar with ball finials raised on bell-cast plinths, and there is a railed wrought-iron gate.