Cockenzie House And Barn

Cockenzie House and Barn

Cockenzie House is an imposing long house dating from approximately 1680, with alterations and additions made in the early 18th century (south front), 1845 and 1902 (north front). The building was largely gutted and renovated in the 1980s and 1990s. It is constructed in simple classical style, rising two storeys plus basement and attic, spanning nine bays. The walls are rendered in grey harl with chamfered sandstone dressings. Part of the north elevation, dating to 1845, is built in squared and snecked rubble with raised margins. A small east wing adjoins the main house, and the "Great Custom" building adjoins to the west, forming a courtyard with the north front of the house.

South Elevation

The south elevation presents a symmetrical nine-bay composition. A central doorway from the early 1800s features an architrave scale and platt staircase with Roman Doric pilasters, frieze and cornice. The door itself is modern glazed with a tripartite fanlight. Flanking the doorway are eight windows (four to each side). The basement contains eight small windows, the first floor nine windows, and three small piended dormers pierce the roofslope.

North Elevation

The north elevation has been substantially altered and presents an undistinguished appearance. The western section, dating to 1845, is advanced, three storeys high, and regular in its four-bay arrangement. It contains a door and three windows to the ground floor, with four windows to both the first and second floors. The northeast corner is rounded and corbelled to the eaves. The mid section, dating to 1902, is advanced, three storeys high, and irregular in arrangement. It has three windows to the ground floor, two windows to the first floor, and a canted tripartite oriel window to the second floor. Two stair windows occupy the eastmost bay, and a door with small window appears to the ground floor in the east return, with one window to the first floor. The original eastmost bay contains a single window to the ground floor. A single canted dormer breaks the roofslope to the west.

East Wing

The east wing comprises four bays and was originally single storey, with a first storey added later above the two westmost bays. The south elevation contains a door and three windows to the ground floor, with two windows to the first floor. The north elevation has a single first-floor window to the west, a ground-floor door to the west flanked to the east by two windows, and a rounded outshot in the eastmost bay containing a single window. The wing links to the east with a new lean-to block dating to the 1990s, which incorporates the original gateway from the garden wall as a large picture window.

Interior

The interior was much damaged in the 1970s and subsequently altered. The building retains some original roll-moulded fireplaces and late 18th-century chimneypieces with applied ornament. Windows were originally casements but are now generally timber sash and case with twelve panes. The south front windows at basement level are three-light casements, and the dormers have nine-pane windows. The roofs are piended (though the east wing has one skewed gable) and slightly bell-cast in graded grey Scotch slate. Two stacks stand symmetrically on the main ridge, harled with plain cope and seven plain cans each, with vestigial thackstanes. An additional small shouldered ashlar stack sits on the 1845 extension to the north front, and a short harled stack rises from the east wing.

The Great Custom

The "Great Custom" building predates Cockenzie House and adjoins it on the west side at right angles. It became derelict and was gutted by fire in the 1970s, then rebuilt in the 1990s, losing much of its original character. The building is three storeys high and gabled, constructed in harled rubble with contrasting margins and a few original stones retained.

The west elevation is essentially eight bays and irregular in appearance. The northmost bay presents an original crowstepped gable with one window aligned on each floor. Windows are otherwise aligned within each bay, including seven catslide dormers breaking the eaves, interspersed with a modern front door and large modern glazed extension to the southwest corner. The east elevation, which forms the courtyard with Cockenzie House, is much altered and irregular, incorporating two original arched openings at ground floor level and four catslide dormers breaking the eaves at the second floor. The south elevation is regular, comprising three bays with three windows to each floor, a louvred oculus in the gablehead, a door, and a catslide dormer in the east angle of the return.

Windows are modern timber small-paned, mostly in sash and case style. The roof is covered in modern pantiles with skews. Three gable stacks, now non-functional, exist; only the stack on the northwest gable remains in original rubble.

Gates

Late 18th-century gates on the south side (Edinburgh Road) feature piers in square-section ashlar with cornice and flat cap, flanked by pedestrian gates and convex quadrant screen walls in rubble with ashlar cope. These lead into a garden which forms an axially-planned forecourt to the house. Gates to the north courtyard are constructed in rubble with stepped cap.

Walls and Garden Features

Extensive and unusual walls enclose the garden and courtyard, generally standing seven feet high and much altered. They are partly constructed in variegated sandstone and whinstone rubble, but include a distinctive decorative layer of black lava fragments (tufa) forming the upper half and cope along most of the west and south lengths. The internal garden face includes remains of decorative seashell patterns. Low courtyard walls have coping in decorative "worm-eaten" limestone blocks.

Garden features, possibly dating to the late 18th century, include two two-storey round gazebos in rubble with conical slate roofs, currently under repair. A vaulted Gothic grotto named "Hecla" is constructed from volcanic lava fragments.