Cruck-framed Barn at Dounie Steading, Blacklunans

This is a late 18th or early 19th century, single-storey, rectangular-plan agricultural barn situated within Dounie Steading, Blacklunans. The barn has rubble walls, likely constructed with earth mortar, and a steeply pitched roof covered with corrugated iron. The roof structure is a combination of five timber cruck couples and seven timber trusses supported on the wallhead. The curved cruck timbers are jointed and pegged together using coach bolts; traditionally, crucks would have been formed from a single piece of wood or pegged with timber. The crucks are set into the walls within a cruck slot and rest on a stone base or footing. The south gable end is open, while the north gable end is clad with timber boarding, some of which may be original. A timber-boarded door provides access through an entrance opening in the centre of the west wall.

Dating vernacular buildings like this is difficult, owing to limited historic records and slow evolution of building style. The barn's construction methods and materials indicate it predates the period of agricultural improvement that impacted Highland Perthshire around the 1830s or 1840s. Contemporary accounts from 1843 describe this period as involving the replacement of thatch roofs with slate and the upgrading of stone and turf cottages.

The farm at Dounie was documented in 1857-1861 as a farmhouse and scattered dwellings owned by Peter Fleming. Buildings are depicted on the 1862-1863 Ordnance Survey map, including the L-plan steading range and the barn. Earlier maps from 1794 and 1825 also show Dounie, confirming its existence since at least the late 18th century. The nearby L-plan farmhouse and steading range appear to be from the Improvement period, probably built in the earlier 19th century, suggesting the cruck frame barn is the earliest surviving building on the site.