Bielside, West Barns, Dunbar

Bielside is a two-storey villa built in 1866 by Robert Rowand Anderson, featuring a sizeable extension that includes a four-stage Italianate tower. It is located adjacent to an earlier 19th-century house and a 17th-century windmill that has been converted for domestic use. The villa is constructed from roughly coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, channelled quoins, and raised base eaves and band courses.

The south entrance elevation is symmetrical with five bays, where the three central bays are narrower and recessed. A balustraded loggia bridges the advanced outer bays, which are supported by Ionic columns and topped with ball-finialled dies. The outer bays feature tripartite windows at the ground floor and bipartite windows at the first floor.

On the east elevation, the asymmetrical design includes a prominent four-stage tower at the center, which has triple arcaded lights in the top storey, a bracketed cornice, and a shallow pyramidal roof with a weathervane. To the outer left, there is a wide full-height canted bay with five lights, and immediately to the right of the tower is a three-storey canted bay that connects to the earlier harled brick and rubble house.

The west elevation features a decorative gabled conservatory to the left of the 1866 south wing. The sash and case windows have a plate glass glazing pattern, with some featuring four panes, and the main windows have bracketed cills. The roof has a shallow pitch and is covered with slate, while the ashlar stacks have bracketed moulded coping. Decorative gutter heads are also retained.

Inside, the villa boasts fine decoration, including stone caryatid chimneypieces, an ornate alabaster chimneypiece with unusual tiles on the cheeks, and an angle chimneypiece in the hall. There is a timber dog-leg stair, gilded surrounds to pier glasses, and fine painted wall decoration in a Renaissance style, along with ornate plasterwork.

The windmill, constructed from red rubble sandstone and formerly harled, is in a funnel shape and was originally a grain mill. It features a stone stair that spirals up to the south, leading to a doorway in a passage that connects with the earlier house. The windmill has irregular windows and a pigeon flight opening with a cill at the wallhead, along with leaded coping.