No 13 Cottage, Crichton

No. 13 Cottage is part of a group of six farm-worker’s cottages, built in 1885 and extended in the mid-20th century, designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson. The cottages were constructed to house workers for Crichton Mains farmhouse, also designed by Anderson, and are located along Crichton Village.

The cottages are a single storey and arranged symmetrically, with advanced gabled ends framing a central arch. They are built of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. The principal (southeast) elevation features a central gable with a pointed-arched pend defined by rubble voussoirs and a hood mould. An inset architraved date stone is placed below the gablehead, and plain stone skews are present. The roof is slate-covered, with small stone stacks flanking the ridge. Four cottages flank the archway, incorporating tripartite windows to the right of each doorway and bipartite windows to the left. Two stone stacks are situated in each row, and the end cottages feature entrance doorways and windows in the re-entrant angles, with gable ends and a circular window above the window.

The southwest elevation shows a single-storey, flat-roofed extension to the return of No. 9, along with a high rubble chimney stack with a stone neck cope. The northwest (rear) elevation displays the original elevation of three cottages, though largely obscured by single-storey, flat-roofed extensions to the central four cottages and further extensions to the rear of No. 13. The northeast elevation features a single-storey, flat-roofed extension to the return of No. 14 and another high rubble chimney stack with a stone neck cope.

The windows are six-pane, slightly bowed bipartite and tripartite casement windows. The roof is graded slate piended, with modern Velux roof lights to the rear pitch of one cottage. Chimneys feature single cans on short stacks and triple cans on high stacks.

The interior was not inspected in 2000.

These cottages were designed to provide housing for workers on the Crichton Mains estate. They are arranged around an arched thoroughfare leading to drying greens at the rear, with each cottage originally possessing a small front garden, shared drive, outhouse, and toilet. Later alterations included flat-roofed kitchen/bathroom extensions, but these have been replaced with larger additions, altering the rear elevation's original form. The front elevation and gardens are now surrounded by a hedge and a low rubble wall.