Building to rear, 10 Glasgow Vennel, Irvine

A single-storey rubble cottage and outbuilding dating from around the mid-18th century, restored in the 1980s. The buildings are grade A listed.

The cottage fronting Glasgow Vennel to the west is four-bays with a slated roof, while the building running parallel to the rear is two-bays with a thatched roof. Both are largely rectangular on plan, though the street-facing cottage is slightly skewed at the north end to follow the line of the street. The walls are constructed from random rubble with large roughly-squared stones to the corners, some of which are late-20th century indentations. Rock-faced rubble chimneys rise from each gable with replacement coping and clay pots.

The building fronting Glasgow Vennel has a four-bay main west elevation with three windows and a door opening set in raised and painted margins. The gabled end bays at north and south are blank. The rear east elevation has a single door opening in plain surrounds. The pitched roof is slated with a leaded ridge, replacement rainwater goods and timber fascia to the eaves. The windows are replica single-pane timber sashes.

The rear building has a pitched roof of reeded thatch with a concrete ridge and cement fillets to the later flat stone skews and skewputts. Two bays face east on the main elevation and four bays face west (two concealed within the present link block). The north gable is blank, the south gable has a single window. All openings are concealed behind late-20th century timber shutters. The windows are replica three-pane timber sliding sashes.

The interior of the street-facing building has been converted into a modern office. The rear building, entered via the link block, comprises a single room with exposed rubble walls and flagstone floor. An exposed replacement A-frame timber roof structure supports the underside of the thatch. A rubble chimneybreast to the south has dressed sandstone surrounds.

A flat-roofed link block added in the late 20th century connects the two buildings and is excluded from the listing.

Historical Context

During the late 18th century the buildings functioned as a heckling shop where the poet Robert Burns worked as a flax dresser for 6 months in 1781-82. Burns' letter of 2 August 1787 notes that the building was damaged by fire on 31 December 1781, though the extent of damage is unknown. The fire is thought to have occurred in the rear building. The buildings first appeared on Wood's Plan of the Town of Irvine in 1819, largely as they exist today except for an additional building abutting the north gable of the street-facing cottage. Various small-scale outbuildings were added to the associated yard north of the present buildings from the mid-19th century until at least the mid-20th century; these were removed during the 1980s restoration.

The 1980s restoration included reinstatement of the thatched roof, stripping and altering the interiors, repairing walls and flagstones, and rebuilding the north gable wall. A mid-20th century link block was replaced as part of these works. The buildings were subsequently converted to a museum, last used as such in 2010. Currently owned by the local authority, they are let out commercially.

The buildings are located in a vennel running north from Irvine High Street, detached from surrounding structures.