Skateraw

Skateraw is an earlier 19th-century farmhouse, with later 19th-century additions to the south. The building is symmetrical, comprising three bays and two storeys with a basement. The north elevation is constructed of squared and coursed stone, while the remaining elevations are harled, with a raised eaves course and base course. A stone porch with steps over sails over the basement area on the north side, featuring a central doorway with a semi-circular arch and decorative fanlight, as well as a cornice and blocking course. Tall windows flank the ground floor, with three windows above on the first floor. The south elevation incorporates a full-height wing projecting from the left, abutting a later flat-roofed addition set within a re-entrant angle at a slightly lower level. A four-light canted window links the two projections, with basement and ground floor levels. A garage addition is located on the right. Further modern additions have been made to the west elevation. The windows are sash and case, with a uniform twelve-pane pattern on the north elevation, and some modern glazing elsewhere. Shouldered wallhead stacks, harled with moulded coping, are present on the original house, alongside a broad stack to the southwest projection; the original cans have been retained. The original house has broad eaves and a shallow piend roof, covered with grey slates. Curved rubble retaining walls, curving inwards at the northwest and northeast corners, define the driveways. A terraced garden sits to the south. Robert Burns recorded a visit in his Border Journals, though this was before the present farmhouse was built, it serves to illustrate the historical context of the coastal site.