Old Burnside Cottages, Rait

Old Burnside Cottages is a row of four single-storey, three-bay thatched cottages (converted to a single dwelling) dating from the 17th or early 18th century with 19th and 20th century alterations. The property is roughly rectangular on plan and is skewed at the west end to follow the line of the adjacent burn. The site slopes gently eastward and the ground, roof and eaves levels of the cottage follow the gradient of the site. The building is whitewashed random rubble construction, with rough projecting footings to some areas. It is part of a group of thatched dwellings in the small settlement of Rait in Perthshire.

The front elevation faces south and is subdivided in four roughly equal parts, with three door openings and a number of window openings. The wall of the west end was rebuilt in the 1970s. The gabled west elevation is blank, with a rounded north corner and large projecting fieldstones at the base. The rear (north) elevation comprises a late 20th century door opening and approximately nine unequally-spaced window openings of various 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. The windows are largely two-pane timber sashes with some late 20th century casements and fixed lights in the rear. There are four eight-paned side-hung timber casements in the east half of the front elevation, dating from the early to mid-19th century. The three doors in the front elevation are vertical timber boarded. That at the east end is no longer in use. The former door opening in the west cottage has been replaced with a window. The pitched roof is covered in reeded thatch (rethatched in the 1970s and again in 1992-93) with a concrete ridge and timber skews. A velux window has been inserted in the rear 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 of the property. All have a single clay pot.

The interior was seen in 2017. The building was converted into a single property in the early 1990s. The internal fabric and layout almost entirely date from this period, except for the remnants of some internal gable walls. There is a change in floor levels towards the eastern part of the building, which has a late 20th century ramp and graded steps descending within it. The rooms largely line the rear (north) elevation, and each end of the building. The western half of the property is served by a long curved corridor, which lines the front (south) elevation. Internal gables have been removed or knocked through to create access between rooms and later partitions inserted.