Steading, Covesea Skerries Lighthouse

The Steading at Covesea Skerries Lighthouse, designed by engineer Alan Stevenson and built by contractor James Smith in 1844, is a significant structure. It features a tall circular lighthouse tower with seven storeys and a semi-circular single-storey range at its base. The exterior is finished in white-painted tooled ashlar with polished ashlar dressings, some of which are painted in contrasting colors. The main entrance is located on the south face, featuring a pedimented doorpiece with a pulvinated stringcourse and an inscription. Additional entrances are found in the south-facing end gables of the single-storey range. Each storey of the north face, which faces the sea, has a single narrow window. The upper stage is flared and corbelled, topped with a cast-iron balustrade and glazed light.

The keepers' cottages, also from around 1844, are single-storey buildings in an Egyptian style. They have a 10-bay frontage, consisting of two mirrored sections of five bays each, with alternating advanced and recessed bays. The cottages are constructed of tooled ashlar with polished ashlar dressings, all painted white. Each advanced bay features either an entrance or a window, both topped with a heavy concave cornice. The sash windows have four panes of glazing, and the cottages have flat roofs with multiple square stacks that have flared copes.

A low coped wall connects the cottages to the lighthouse, enclosing a central court. The steading, also presumably built in 1844, is a long single-storey building with two facing six-bay ranges. It is made of tooled rubble with tooled ashlar dressings. The steading features an off-centre segmental-headed cart bay, which is currently obscured by double-leaf plank doors, along with six doorways and mural vents. It has two ridge stacks and piended slate roofs.