Cottage & Mill, Hessilhead

This is a late 18th to early 19th century cottage and mill complex. The cottage is a single-story, three-bay structure with a wing extending to the south and a later brick lean-to extension also to the south. The front features a central round-arched surround with an original decorative fanlight above, flanked by windows. The cottage is built of limewashed rubble with painted droved ashlar margins and pilaster quoins.

The west (rear) elevation has three bays on the left and a single bay plus the lean-to extension on the right, featuring small, irregular openings.

The windows are timber sash and case with two panes per sash, likely originally twelve-pane windows where the astragal bars have been removed. The roof is covered with graded grey slates incorporating straight stone skews with beaked skewputs, a stone ridge, and end stacks, with the stack on the left rebuilt in brick.

The interior was not inspected in 2003.

Although subsequently altered, the cottage is of some age and contributes to the vernacular character of the small cluster of buildings at Hessilhead, positioned at a right angle to the road. Originally thatched, it has a low wallhead and relatively small windows. The round-arched architrave with fanlight represents the sole sophisticated architectural feature, although the original door is no longer present. The cream-coloured lime wash and the red painted margins are consistent with local traditions. Hessilhead includes a small number of cottages and the remains of a former saw mill, grouped irregularly around the Dusk Water at a bend in the road. A former castle, 'Hessilhead' or 'Hazelhead' Castle, once stood to the northeast and is shown on Andrew Armstrong’s map of 1775. The site is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.