Old Burnside Cottages, Rait

Old Burnside Cottages is a row of four single-storey, three-bay thatched cottages, originally built in the 17th or early 18th century, and later altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. These cottages were converted into a single dwelling. The building has a roughly rectangular plan, but is skewed at the west end to follow the course of the adjacent burn. The site slopes gently eastward, and the ground, roof, and eaves levels of the cottage follow this gradient.

The building is constructed of whitewashed random rubble, with rough projecting footings in some areas. It is part of a group of thatched dwellings in the small settlement of Rait, Perthshire. The front elevation, facing south, is divided into four roughly equal sections, featuring three door openings and several window openings. The west end wall was rebuilt in the 1970s. The gabled west elevation is blank, with a rounded north corner and large projecting fieldstones at its base. The rear (north) elevation includes a late 20th century door opening and around nine unequally-spaced window openings of varying sizes. The east elevation is gabled and contains a small window opening.

The window openings are generally small and deeply recessed, with rendered arrises and replacement projecting cills. Most windows are two-pane timber sashes, though there are also some late 20th century casements and fixed lights at the rear. Four eight-paned side-hung timber casements, dating from the early to mid-19th century, are located in the east half of the front elevation. The three front doors are vertical timber boarded. The door at the east end is no longer in use, and the former door opening in the west cottage has been replaced with a window. The pitched roof is covered in reeded thatch, having been rethatched in the 1970s and again in 1992-93. A velux window has been inserted into the rear roof pitch. There are three red brick chimneystacks on the east half of the property and two dressed stone chimneystacks on each end of the west half. Each has a single clay pot.

The building was converted into a single property in the early 1990s, and the interior fabric and layout largely date from this period, although remnants of some original internal gable walls remain. The floor levels change towards the eastern part of the building, incorporating a late 20th century ramp and graded steps. Rooms are generally located along the rear (north) elevation and the ends of the building. The western half of the property is served by a long curved corridor, which runs alongside the front (south) elevation. Internal gables have mostly been removed or knocked through to provide access between rooms, and later partitions have been inserted.