Cameron

A two-storey and dormer-less attic, three-bay farmhouse (1830-40) of simple classical proportions with a central timber door. The principal elevation is of neat, coursed rubble construction with raised margins, narrow quoins, and droved ashlar dressings. There is a single storey piended outshot with one window above to the west gable, and two windows to the east gable. Both gables also have a smaller attic window. The rear elevation has a single-storey lean-to out-shot with timber door, a tall and narrow stair window, and three small square windows at the ground floor indicating the location of the larder and laundry rooms. The large windows are mostly timber sash and case units with a 12-pane glazing pattern, while the smaller windows are fixed, four-pane timber units. The gables have ashlar skews, and the ashlar chimney stacks have moulded cornices. The roof has a covering of grey slate in diminishing courses. The interior (seen 2021) has wide halls and a relatively intact fixed interior decorative scheme, with carved rosette detailing to the door frames and timber fireplaces, a recessed niche in the master bedroom, and a good quality turned staircase rising to attic floor level. The ground floor has intact dairy, larder and laundry rooms with flagstone floors, timber doors and stone shelving. The outshot to the west gable has a two-leaf timber door.

Historical development

Cameron Farm in central Fife has been an agricultural settlement dating from at least the early 17th century. The Second Statistical Account of Scotland (1845) notes that the name of Cameron Parish was most likely taken from the farm which was owned by Andrew Law of St Andrews in 1640. The 1845 account also states the farmhouse and steading at Cameron were erected, and the farmland much improved, within the last fourteen years. This indicates a likely construction date of around 1832.

The 19th century was a period of significant improvement in farming practices across Scotland as subsistence farming gave way to the creation of larger, commercial farming practices. This change, known as the Agricultural Improvement period, saw innovations in land use and drainage, introduction of new crops and crop rotation, improved understanding of animal husbandry and increased length of farm tenancies.

The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 shows Cameron farmhouse (LB143), steading (LB2682) and farm cottages (LB2683) occupying the same locations as they do presently. The farm buildings at Cameron are described in the 1853 Ordnance Survey Name Book as 'a large farmhouse two stories high with offices and threshing machine and a farm of about 365 acres of arable land, tenanted by Henry Miller and the property of the East Anstruther Sea Box Society'. The farm has remained in agricultural use since then. The farmhouse has not been tenanted for several years (2022).