Steading, Easter Parkgate

Easter Parkgate is an agricultural settlement comprising a farmhouse and an associated steading, situated beside the A701 Dumfries to Beattock road, approximately seven miles northeast of Dumfries and about half a mile northeast of the present village of Parkgate. The farmhouse formerly operated as a coaching inn and the two buildings together represent a well-preserved example of late 18th and early 19th century Improvement period farm design.

The Farmhouse

The farmhouse is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular-plan building dating from the mid to late 18th century, with a narrower three-bay wing attached to the west, added in the early to mid-19th century. Both sections are constructed in whitewashed rubble with rendered and painted margins to the openings.

The front, south-facing elevation is six bays wide, comprising the original three-bay farmhouse to the east and the later three-bay wing to the west. Each section has a central entrance opening; the eastern doorway has a corniced doorpiece. The rear, north-facing elevation is four bays wide and contains two door openings. A single-storey, rectangular-plan return is attached to the eastern end of the rear elevation, with whitewashed rubble walls and a mono-pitched roof. A stepped and coped rubble wall extends eastwards from the northeast corner of the farmhouse and incorporates a pedimented doorway next to the house, which contains a lion's head motif.

The roof is a graded slate pitch with red sandstone skews. There are three chimneystacks: one at each gable apex and one along the roof ridge. These are largely red brick, though the western chimneystack is dressed stone. Three small rooflights are set into the south roof pitch. The windows are largely timber sliding sashes: those to the original eastern farmhouse have a four-pane glazing pattern, while those to the western wing have eight panes. The rear return has some eight-pane fixed lights.

Photographs from 2010 show that the interior retains some features typical of a late 18th and early 19th century farmhouse, including low ceilings with timber beams and rubblestone chimneypieces with dressed sandstone openings. However, the fixtures and fittings and the internal decorative scheme appear to date largely from the mid to late 20th century.

The classical restraint and symmetry of the principal elevation, with window openings set close to the eaves and spaced widely apart, is characteristic of Improvement period farmhouses. The farmhouse was deliberately sited and angled to be separate from the steading, reflecting the growing status of the tenant farmer during this period and the emerging formal arrangements of farm layouts. Its prominent roadside position and scale also reflect its former use as a coaching inn.

The Steading

The steading, which dates from the early 19th century, is a single-storey, L-plan building with an attic, situated to the east of the farmhouse and fronted by an open courtyard. It is constructed in harl-pointed rubble with dressed sandstone rybats. The north range has two cartshed openings, ventilator slits and a single entrance opening with timber doors. A lower, single-storey building is attached to the western end of the north range. The east range has a hay loft in the south gable, which faces the road, with an entrance opening below, offset to the left. The pitched roofs are partially slated with rooflights and a contrasting roof ridge. Significant sections of the roof have collapsed, particularly in the central section of the north range.

The varying treatment of each section of the steading — large openings to the former cartshed, narrow ventilation slits to areas that would have housed livestock, and the large opening at the gable apex of the east range indicating a hayloft — demonstrates clearly the different agricultural functions these spaces served. The L-plan layout, comprising a barn, byres, stables and storage sheds arranged around an open courtyard, is largely retained despite some later changes and loss of fabric. Overall, the steading retains a significant amount of early 19th century fabric, and the relative absence of later alterations is unusual and adds to its authenticity.

Historical Development

The settlement of Parkgate is first shown on Crawford's map of 1804 as two distinct clusters of buildings surrounded by sections of land bounded by trees. A newspaper advertisement from 1812 in the Caledonian Mercury confirms that Parkgate was an agricultural settlement comprising two farms, Easter Parkgate and Wester Parkgate, operating separately. Both farms were described as having arable land of "first quality," together with rich meadow, woodland and improvable pasture. Both farms were part of the tenanted holdings of the Kirkmichael estate, owned and improved by John Stewart Lyon Esq. of Kirkmichael between 1818 and 1862.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1848 to 1858 records Easter Parkgate as a farmhouse and an inn occupied by Thomas Eskdale. The farmhouse operated as a coaching inn on the Edinburgh to Dumfries and Portpatrick turnpike road via Moffat. A sales advertisement from 1824 in The Scotsman describes the inn, known as Parkgate Inn, as "well-frequented" and supports the view that the farmhouse dates from the late 18th century. The mail coach passed Easter Parkgate four times a week, and there was also a daily coach between Glasgow and Dumfries along this route. By 1845, the New Statistical Account records the mail coach from Edinburgh to Dumfries travelling the turnpike road twice daily.

Easter Parkgate first appears in detail on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1857 and published in 1858. This shows the farmhouse as a rectangular-plan building with two outshots at the rear and a small structure attached to the east gable. The narrow western wing is already shown adjoining the west gable, confirming it was added before 1857. A horsemill is shown attached to the north range of the steading, and a wall projected from the lower western section of the north range to join the east gable of the house, separating the steading courtyard from the farmhouse. A laid-out garden is shown at the rear of the house, possibly a kitchen garden supplying produce for the farm and inn. A further steading is shown across the road to the south, but this was demolished in the late 20th century and replaced by a new house in the early 2000s.

By 1878 the farm extended to approximately 133 Imperial acres of drained arable land, grass and pasture, with a "suitable and commodious" steading and farmhouse, as advertised in The Scotsman. The second edition Ordnance Survey map, revised in 1899 and published in 1900, shows the footprint of the buildings largely unchanged, with the exception of the removal of the horsemill. Loss of horsemills was not uncommon after their use became obsolete due to improvements in farming from the late 19th century.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1976 shows little change to the buildings during the 20th century, other than the removal of a small return to the western part of the rear elevation. Between 1989 and 2014, a number of planning permission and listed building consent applications were submitted relating to alterations to the farmhouse and plans to convert the steading to a dwelling. Conversion works to the steading had not been completed as of 2020. Easter Parkgate is now privately owned and no longer in use as a farm.

Kirkmichael parish, because of its relative flatness and dryness, was one of the best grain-growing parishes in the southwest of Scotland. The New Statistical Account of 1845 records that the greatest gross amount of produce in the parish was 1,350 acres of oats, with approximately 1,650 cattle grazed. By the 1760s, the farming system in southwest Scotland was dominated by the need to supply southern markets with store cattle, with oats grown as the main subsistence crop. Easter Parkgate reflects this agricultural context, and the scale of the farmhouse and steading is consistent with the character of farm steadings in the parish.

The nearby row of single-storey, early to mid-19th century cottages at Corses, to the northeast of Easter Parkgate, are listed at category C. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1848 to 1858 describes the village of Parkgate as consisting of two farms, an inn and cottages at the roadside. The style, date and proximity of these cottages suggest they may have been built as accommodation for farm labourers employed at Easter Parkgate and Wester Parkgate.

Easter Parkgate is sometimes referred to as a former tollhouse. However, the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1848 to 1858 confirm that the tollhouse was located further along the road to the southwest.

Setting

Easter Parkgate lies adjacent to the northern side of the A701 and remains surrounded by large areas of farmland. The adjacent farm, Wester Parkgate, was historically linked as another tenanted farm on the Kirkmichael estate. The immediate and wider setting of both buildings remains largely unchanged from that shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. The late 18th and early 19th century layout of the farm is retained, including the visual connection between the farmhouse and the steading. Easter Parkgate is a prominent feature in the landscape, particularly when viewed from the road, and its closeness to the road reflects its former role as a coaching stop on the historic turnpike route.