Highgate

Highgate is an early 19th century house of 2 storeys arranged in a distinctive U-plan, with 5 bays to the main elevation and low projecting wings forming a wide courtyard. The entrance front presents 3 bays to the right and 2 to the left, with doors positioned in the 2nd and 4th bays. A segmentally-headed carriage arch serves the outer left wing. The building is constructed of coursed rubble whinstone with droved sandstone tabs, now painted. The elevation retains a base course and eaves course, with windows and doors featuring raised and painted margins.

The roofscape displays grey slates with a stone ridge, corniced end stacks and a ridge stack punctuated by circular clay cans. Three skylights have been removed. UPVC windows have replaced the original timber sash and case windows, which were probably originally 12-pane but are now 4-pane.

The rear (northwest) elevation comprises a single storey and attic service wing projecting at right angles to the left, with a later 20th century 2-storey extension to the right. Low single storey ranges to left and right formerly functioned as stable, barn and kennel.

The interior retains good quality original unpainted timber work in pine, including reeded architraves with corner roundels and panelled doors with raised fields. The kitchen contains bed closets fitted with 2-leaf panelled doors. A timber boarded door painted "CHESE STORE" [sic] with wooden cheese pegs and a hatch provides access to the coachhouse below, illustrating the building's integrated domestic and commercial function.

The house was built for James Findlay, a prominent cheese dealer, and is prominently sited on the Lochlibo Road. Easter Highgate exemplifies the prosperity generated by the local dairy industry. The parish, like much of Ayrshire, produced the renowned Dunlop cheese developed by Barbara Gilmour of Dunlop in the early 18th century. By the time of Highgate's construction, dairy produce had become the staple of the regional economy. The New Statistical Account of 1845 records that Findlay had erected a large storehouse at Easter Highgate capable of holding 12,000 stones of cheese and 1,000 bolls of oatmeal, which he transported regularly to Glasgow market. The surviving interior woodwork—relatively plain but elevated by Regency style mouldings and details—reflects both the building's practical design and the region's former prosperity. The building is marked on John Thomson's map of 1828 and the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.