Burnside Cottage, 23 Northall Road, Markinch

Burnside Cottage, located at 23 Northall Road in Markinch, is a classical cottage built around 1889. It is a single-storey structure with a rectangular plan, featuring three bays and a combination of piend and platform roofs. The cottage includes an adjoining pitch-roofed outbuilding, which is now part of the house, and a lower flat-roofed extension that was converted from a lean-to outhouse. The exterior is constructed from dressed ashlar and squared, snecked, coursed rubble, with rusticated and droved quoins. Notable architectural details include a base course, a Greek key-pattern frieze at the eaves, and a moulded cornice. The windows and doorcase at the front are architraved, while the rear features chamfered arrises.

The south elevation is symmetrical, showcasing a deep-set panelled timber door with a two-leaf fanlight at the center, framed by a moulded doorcase with scroll consoles and a cornice. Flanking the door are windows in the outer bays. To the outer right, there is a lower, recessed flat-roofed extension with a door to the left and a tripartite window to the right.

The north elevation is also symmetrical, featuring a central glazed oculus with windows in the flanking bays. A boundary wall is adjacent to the outer right, and a lower outbuilding is attached to the outer left, extending into the boundary wall.

On the west elevation, there is a window in the bay to the right of center, along with a shouldered wallhead stack at the center. The east elevation has a window to the right, positioned below the pitch roof of the outbuilding, and a shouldered wallhead stack at the center.

The cottage has a 4-pane glazing pattern in the timber sash and case windows on the south and west sides, while the north elevation features a lying 12-pane glazing pattern, with the lower sash of the left window fitted with plate glass. The extension has modern plate glass glazing. The roof is covered with grey slates, and the ashlar stacks are cavetto coped with polygonal cans.

Inside, the original features have largely been preserved. The vestibule includes a dado rail and a tripartite screen door. The inner hall also has a dado rail and a round-headed door leading to a north-facing room with an oculus, adorned with floreate astragals and colored glazing. In the room to the left, there is a white marble fireplace, plain cornicing, and a decorative ceiling rose. Both principal rooms have working shutters and brass bar sash lifts.

Additionally, the property is enclosed by semicircular-coped rubble boundary walls and features a decorative arrow-head cast-iron gate.