Dalhousie Mains

Dalhousie Mains is a late 18th-century farmhouse with early 19th-century alterations, comprising a 2-storey, 4-bay main block with 2-bay wings and a steading to the rear. It is constructed in tooled sandstone rubble with stugged and droved dressings, polished to margins. The walls feature an interrupted base course, raised margins, and long and short quoins.

The southwest (entrance) elevation is asymmetrical. A doorway with hoodmould and panelled timber door sits on the ground floor of the penultimate bay to the left. A stair window lies between the ground and first floors of the penultimate bay to the right. An early 19th-century canted window spans the ground and first floors of the gabled bay to the left, with a dividing band course. Regular fenestration marks the ground and first floors of the bay to the right, with a small gable breaking the eaves above. Two-storey, 2-bay wings adjoin the outer left and right, each with regular fenestration to the ground and first floors.

The southeast elevation is asymmetrical, with a boundary wall advanced to the left and a blind window off-centre to the right of the first floor.

The northeast elevation is asymmetrical across five bays, including the wings. A gabled bay at the centre has a window off-centre to the left of the ground and first floors and a small 8-pane window to the right of the first floor. A lime-washed lean-to addition with a window to the centre and strip quoins occupies the ground floor of the left return, with an 8-pane window off-centre to the left of the first floor. A gabled penultimate bay to the right and a slightly advanced bay to the outer right contain two windows flanked to the right by a boarded timber door with a 2-pane fanlight on the ground floor of the penultimate bay to the right, and an 8-pane window centred to the first floor. The bay to the outer right has a glazed timber door flanked to the right by a window, with a window centred to the first floor; its right return is blank. A glazed, panelled timber door reached by 3 steps sits on the ground floor of a recessed penultimate bay to the left, with a window to the first floor. A slightly lower 2-storey bay to the outer left has a window to the ground floor and a blind window to the first floor. A 5-bay single-storey and attic lean-to addition extends to the far right, backing onto a high rubble boundary wall. It has a panelled timber door to the centre of the ground floor and regular fenestration to the remaining four bays. Bipartite dormer windows occupy the first, third and fifth bays of the attic floor, with modern skylights to the second and fourth bays.

The northwest elevation is primarily obscured by a boundary wall swept down to the left and right, forming the gable end of the lean-to addition. Two rubble lean-to buildings with corrugated iron roofs sit off-centre to the left, with a small single-pane vertical window above.

Windows throughout are predominantly 12-pane sash and case windows, including a lying-pane window to the centre block of the southwest elevation. The roof is of graded purple-grey slate with a lead ridge. The chimney stacks are harled and stugged sandstone with corniced gableheads and circular and octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The interior was not seen in 1998.

The steading is planned as an L-shape. The northwest range is a single-storey rectangular block with cement-faced southeast and northwest elevations. The gable end is of rubble with stugged dressings. Irregularly placed timber panelled doors and windows sit on the southeast elevation, while the northwest elevation is blank. The roof is of purple-grey slate with modern skylights and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The southeast range comprises a 2-storey, 4-bay block with a single-storey, 5-bay stable block adjoining to the outer right. It is constructed of whinstone rubble with droved dressings. A basket-arched doorway with a 2-leaf boarded timber door sits at the centre bay of the ground floor, flanked to the left, outer left and right by boarded timber doors. A 6-pane window lights each bay of the first floor. Skylights are regularly placed to the attic. The adjoining stables are of squared and snecked, stugged sandstone with droved dressings. A 2-leaf boarded timber door lies to the left. A wide opening supported by a central cast-iron column, with chamfered reveals, sits to the right. A boarded timber screen with four recessed stable doors, flanked by fluted timber pilasters, divides the stable bays. The right return is blank.

High random rubble boundary walls with flat coping flank the house to the left and right. A doorway with long and short dressings opens to the left wall. The wall sweeps down above a boarded timber door to the north of the west wall, with modern timber buildings beyond. Polished sandstone rusticated gatepiers with corniced necks and pyramidal caps sit to the south of the southeast wall, flanked to the left and right by tooled, coursed sandstone quadrant walls with flat coping. A rubble wall lies to the north of the southeast wall.