Steading (West Range And Adjoining South Range), Sebay, Tankerness

Steading (West Range and Adjoining South Range), Sebay, Tankerness

A farmstead of earlier to mid 19th-century date with later alterations and additions, comprising a main farmhouse with attached steading ranges arranged around a courtyard to the northeast.

The main house is a symmetrical T-plan structure of two storeys and three bays, constructed of rubble with partial harling and concrete block cills. It features an entrance porch to the west with a flat roof and dentilled cornice. Windows are set close under the eaves. The principal (south) elevation displays a fleur-de-lys-headed sandstone pediment panel above a deep-set door, with an aluminium-framed glazed sun room or porch at ground level in the central bay and windows at each floor in the flanking bays. The west (entrance) elevation is a four-bay composition, grouped 3-1, with a boarded door leading to a square-plan porch set within the internal angle to the right of centre. This elevation includes windows at ground and first-floor levels distributed across the bays, with a single advanced bay to the outer right containing a window and topped by a gablehead stack. The windows throughout are four-pane timber sash and case type. The main roof is grey slate; graded stone tiles cover the rear slope. Stone ridges are present, and harled corniced gablehead and ridge stacks rise through the roof. uPVC rainwater goods have been installed. The interior was not inspected in 1998.

Two parallel single-storey rectangular-plan byres or sheds stand directly to the rear (north) of the main house.

The steading consists of coursed rubble farm buildings arranged in a courtyard to the northeast of the main house. These comprise a two-storey threshing mill, grain store and cart shed range forming the north side; a single-storey byre range forming the west side; an adjoining store or byre range forming the south side; and a single-storey stable or byre range forming the east side.

The north range serves as threshing barn and cart shed. Its courtyard (south) elevation spans seven bays, grouped 3-4. The western three bays contain the cart shed and store, marked by three large square-headed openings at ground level, with a first-floor window in the central bay and a boarded door at first floor in the outer left bay. The remaining bays feature a boarded door at ground with a small window beside it, and a window at first floor above. The eastern four-bay section houses the threshing barn, with a boarded door at ground in the right-centre bay and windows at both floors in the remaining bays. The interior contains a boarded partition wall bisecting the threshing barn, with some threshing machinery surviving at the east end and a timber staircase leading to the grain store at first-floor level.

The west range is a single-storey byre with a four-bay courtyard (east) elevation. Boarded doors are positioned in the centre bay and in the outer left bay (here as large two-leaf timber doors breaking the eaves line), with windows in the outer right and left bays. The interior preserves exposed tie beams supporting a canted ceiling, concrete stall divisions lining the west wall, iron tether poles and individual water troughs, and a central slurry channel.

The south range is a single-storey store, shown as a single bay on its courtyard (north) elevation with a boarded door set to the outer right. The external (south) elevation displays three bays: a window in the centre bay, a sliding boarded door in the right bay, and a window in the left bay. A two-leaf sliding boarded door is set in the end gable of the adjoining byre range to the outer left.

The east range functions as a stable with a three-bay courtyard (west) elevation. Two boarded doors occupy the centre and right bays, with a window in the left bay. The interior displays exposed tie beams supporting a canted ceiling, timber stable partitions lining the east wall, a timber hay rack on the south wall, and a central slurry channel.

All steading ranges feature graded stone-tiled roofs, with grey slate covering the east range. Stone ridges with ventilators run through the roofs, and stone skews are present. Small rooflights serve the livestock sheds, and a corrugated uPVC window has been inserted into the threshing barn range.

A coursed rubble boundary wall encloses a rectangular garden to the south of the farmhouse.