Hillend Steading

Hillend Steading is a four-sided courtyard steading dating from approximately the mid-to-late 18th century, with substantial remodelling and improvements around 1830-35, undertaken in the style of Burn & Bryce, contemporaneous with the construction of the new farmhouse. The steading’s walls are primarily of earlier 18th-century field rubble boulders, with quoins and dressings replaced and alterations made in dressed, droved ashlar around 1830-35. Slate roofs cover the structure.

The north range features a long, single-story blind wall, originally facing the house, which was heightened and extended eastward around the 1830s. To the east is a single-story addition with three segmental-arched cart arches at ground level; two are blocked, with the central arch containing 19th-century vertically-boarded doors beneath an arched lintel that has been truncated by a later flat lintel. Hayloft openings with boarded shutters are above the arches. A boldly corbelled angle is present at the northwest corner, and the west and east gables feature crowstepped gableheads with "beaked" skews. A small loft opening with a sill is in the east gable, topped with a block finial and weather vane. A rectangular slapping (niche) is located off-centre in the west gable, containing a modern glazed door.

The courtyard elevation has asymmetrical openings and a forestair off-centre to the right. A formerly dormered loft opening has been re-roofed with felt. Timber stall divisions are within the steading. The slate roof includes a 19th-century cast-iron skylight and several regularly placed modern pipe vents to the east, with a stone ridge.

The west range has a high ground level and regular window openings with stugged dressings; the upper part is glazed with three fixed panes, and the lower part has vertically-boarded fixed shutters. A raised slated roof vent is present. The courtyard displays asymmetrical openings.

The east range, facing the road, has symmetrical blind walls, with a central entrance flanked by crow-stepped gables of the north and south ranges. A range to the right (north) is open to the courtyard and supported by three cast-iron columns, with a slate roof and stone ridge.

The south range includes a circular chimney stalk of hand-made red brick, raised to the left (west) of a former steam-engine house which powered a threshing mill. The mill building and engine house project south at the centre of the south range, all introduced around 1830. Low, square-plan ashlar gatepiers with pyramid caps are located north of the steading, leading to the house.

The farmhouse, detached to the east of the steading, is two-story and of asymmetrical, plain Jacobethan style. It has a long, four-bay elevation to the road (east), with paired gables. The main entrance is in the left-hand gabled bay, which has been altered. The side elevations are three-bay, with a central entrance to the south elevation. Stepped masonry skews the main gable, and coped gablet-headed dormers are present. Paired square-pan corniced stacks, circular and spearhead masonry finials top the structure, and the windows contain a 12-pane timber sash and case glazing pattern. Various outshots extend from the rear (west), including a flat-roofed addition built in 1921.

The interior features a stone staircase with a patterned cast-iron balustrade, ground-floor chimney-pieces mostly dating from around 1900, original chimney-pieces with cast-iron and tiled grates on the first floor, and deep-coved first-floor ceilings.