Belfry Cottage, Wester Pencaitland

The Old Schoolhouse in Wester Pencaitland is an early 19th-century building that originally served as a school and schoolhouse. It consists of a single storey and basement, featuring a pair of cottages located at a road junction on land that slopes down towards the River Tyne. The exterior is constructed from stugged sandstone rubble, squared and snecked on the main elevations, with ashlar dressings.

The west elevation has six symmetrical bays, with each of the two cottages comprising three bays. At the centre of each cottage, there is a rectangular porch that projects outward, featuring segmental panels between angle piers and a simple blocking course. Each porch has bipartite timber mullioned windows above and doors in panels on the south returns. There is a single window in each bay flanking the porches, with the right-hand cottage (the former schoolroom) having a taller window. A statue of a pupil is seated on an inscribed tablet above the schoolroom porch.

An addition from around 1910 is set forward on the outer right side and is connected to a piend-roofed addition on the south gable elevation. The north elevation has a blank gable with an attic window. The east elevation features a long narrow projection at the centre of the right cottage, which is piend-roofed and has a door.

On the south gable of the former schoolroom, there is a birdcage ashlar bellcote that currently houses a boiler flue. The sash and case windows have a 4-pane glazing pattern, and the building is topped with ashlar coped skews and has end and mutual gable stacks, covered with grey slates. The property also includes retaining walls and railings made of rubble, with semi-circular coping on the terraced section to the west, complemented by wrought-iron railings.