Farmhouse And Steading, Ballingall

Farmhouse and Steading, Ballingall

A group of farm buildings arranged around a courtyard to the east of a new house. The complex includes an old house now in derelict condition, originally built circa late 17th or early 18th century as a laird's house, later used as a farm building, then reverting to domestic use in recent times and now empty. As of 1992, the group also comprised an attached L-plan steading to the east and a detached single-storey outbuilding enclosing a square to the west.

The Laird's House

Built on a sloping site, the house presents a two-storey front elevation to the south but is single-storey at the rear to the north. The roof is asymmetrical, swept down to the eaves line at first-floor level. The rear elevation is further reduced in height by a high ground level.

The building is constructed of rubble masonry on large boulder footings, with larger blocks used on the south elevation and random field rubble on the north. The roof is slated at a steep pitch, particularly steep to the rear as described above; the slates on the north slope have collapsed. The stone ridge has masonry skews and beaked, moulded ashlar skewputts. The west gable features distinctive stepped 'kneelers' at the mid-point of the skews. The chimney stacks over the east and west gables are truncated.

The south or entrance elevation has three widely spaced bays. The southwest angle is deeply chamfered at ground-floor level, corbelled to square above at first-floor level. The outer bays have narrow single windows, reglazed with modern uPVC glazing. The first-floor window lintels are continuous with cornice blocks. The entrance sits at the centre, with a door that is a late 18th or early 19th-century enlargement, featuring roughly droved dressings with broad slightly raised margins, a replacement concrete lintel, and a circa 1800 six-panel door. A single large square window above is presumably a later introduction, probably 18th century, with original-looking dressings and possibly originally blind; it may have contained an armorial panel. A fine moulded cornice sits over an ashlar eaves band. A tiny window in the west gable-head is otherwise blind.

The interior has been stripped and the upper floor partially removed. A fine original, possibly late 17th-century chimneypiece occupies the centre of the west wall at first-floor level, featuring a basket-arched masonry surround and a boldly projecting moulded cornice cill. The east wall also has a plainer masonry fire-surround, now blocked, at first-floor level and a blocked door off-centre to the right at ground level.

The East Wing or Jamb

An east wing or jamb is attached to the east gable, its date uncertain but probably 18th century and contemporary with parts of the steading. It is single-storey with a very high steeply pitched pantiled roof. The south elevation has a single window to the left (with roughly droved cill) and a door opening to the right, with dressings featuring rounded arrises matching those of the main entrance of the old house. Both windows now have uPVC glazing. A single window to the north is also present.

The Steading

A single-storey rubble and pantile steading is attached to the east of the house wing, enclosing a close to the east, returning along the road to the south, and turning in again with a north-south orientated cart-shed to the south. The steading's date is uncertain, possibly as early as the old house (late 17th or early 18th century), though it was partially altered and rebuilt in the 19th century.

The long east range has partly lost pantiles and a blind east elevation. A wide rectangular opening with timber lintel appears in the southeast re-entrant angle. The south range, facing the roadside, contains an early roof structure with undressed timbers as couples in an A-frame roof; elsewhere the A-frame roof has been replaced with machine-cut timbers at a later date. An attached piend-roofed, pantiled cart-shed range returns to the north at the south end of the east range, with three rectangular cart-bay openings to the west. The sharp southwest angle of the cart-shed, facing the road, features a swept-out chamfer to a squared angle below the wallhead. Quoins and dressed stones are roughly stugged with neatly droved margins.

The Outbuilding to the West of the Close

A single-storey rubble and pantile outbuilding with slate skirting stands to the west of the close. The east elevation facing the close features a large slapping with timber lintel to the left and a small window and pedestrian door to the right. The west elevation is blind except for a small window near the centre. The east wall of a ruined building extending from the north gable, now used as a boundary wall, is also present.