Houlet Cottage, Main Street, Carlops

This is a row of six single-storey, three-bay weavers' cottages dating to circa 1785. The cottages are built of harled rubble with freestone dressings and are limewashed. Three cottages have gabled timber porches. A canted bay addition of rendered brick, stone, and timber is present to the far left (Birkenbush). Later, predominantly 20th-century, rendered brick, stone, timber, single-storey additions and dormers extend from the rear. The cottages retain a variety of 19th-century traditional glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. They have grey slate roofs with ridge stacks topped with clay cans, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

Internally, the cottages generally retain their original ground floor layout, with a kitchen and former workroom flanking a through-passage that opens directly from the front door. The ground floor rooms originally contained box beds and wide lintelled sandstone fireplaces with rounded corbels; these features have largely disappeared. Some partition walls are constructed of solid timber frames with rubble infill.

The cottages were built in 1784 by Robert Brown, the laird of Newhall, as part of a planned village layout along the Edinburgh to Biggar road to house cotton-weavers. Following the decline of the textile industry in the late 19th century, the village developed into a health resort, and now serves as a popular destination for visitors and walkers. These cottages, set close to the roadside, substantially retain their original scale, massing, and traditional glazing patterns, contributing significantly to the character of Carlops.

The cottages are part of a wider group of buildings including Row of 6 Cottages (Ferndale, Amulree, Finlaggan, Blinkieknowe, Birkenbush), Row of 3 Cottages (Ashley, The Biggin, Weavers), Carlops Church, Pentland and Elphinstone, Allan Ramsay Hotel, and Row of 4 Cottages (Springbank, Carberry, Langskaill, Jess).