Byres, Leahead

Leahead is an earlier 19th-century farmhouse, extended in the later 19th century and altered in the 20th century. It is situated within a courtyard plan, with L-shaped byre ranges forming an asymmetrical U-shape to the front, enclosed by a coped boundary wall with corniced gatepiers. A ruinous, circa 1860, two-bay extension adjoins the rear of the main house.

The house itself is two storeys and three bays, with gabled elevations. A late 20th-century piend-roofed porch has been added to the centre of the front (east) elevation. The north elevation features an M-gable with a byre adjoining the main house to the left, and a circa 1860 addition to the right. This addition includes a later doorway at ground level, and a blocked pigeon loft with an alighting-ledge at the gable apex. The west elevation has a regularly fenestrated two-bay addition to the left, with a recessed bay of the original house to the right. Blind gables are present on the south side, with a byre adjoining the original house.

The original house has non-traditional uPVC windows, while the addition features sash and case windows with 12-pane glazing at ground level and 4-pane glazing at the first floor. The original house retains coped gablehead stacks with thake-stones and yellow clay cans, along with ashlar coped skews. Slate covers the roof of the original house, while the addition has temporary roofing felt.

Inside, the house contains a flagged hallway and a curved sandstone staircase. The sitting room features a late Victorian painted cast-iron chimney piece with scrolled brackets and foliate motifs, along with a contemporary decorative cast-iron fender.

The north range, formerly used as a threshing barn, is L-shaped and partially un-roofed. It features raised ashlar margins to most openings, a timber-boarded door in the east elevation, and two square-headed vehicle entrances in the centre of the south elevation. Other openings include a slit window, an arched vehicle entrance, a doorway with flanking slit windows, and three slit windows to the east gable. The north elevation has been largely rebuilt in red brick, slightly behind the original wall line, and a piended roof covers the north corner.

The south range is a simple L-plan byre adjoining the house, with an early 20th-century lean-to brick addition in the courtyard re-entrant angle. An asymmetrical gable is present on the east side. A 20th-century tripartite window is found on the west (rear) elevation, along with a French door and a later addition advanced to the right.

The southeast byre, built in the later 19th century, is a gabled structure with whinstone rubble and long and short droved sandstone dressings, irregular openings, and a corrugated iron roof.

The boundary wall, gates and gatepiers are characterised by corniced gatepiers with chamfered corners, recessed panels and pyramid caps. Simple, lower pyramid-topped gatepiers flank the sides for pedestrian gates, though the southern foot-gate has been walled up. Coped quadrant boundary walls and cast-iron gates complete the enclosure.