Walled Garden, Nether Horsburgh

Nether Horsburgh Farm House, Walled Garden and Farm Buildings is a substantial agricultural complex dating from around 1800, with significant additions made in the mid-19th century. It stands as a good example of a little-altered farm steading, retaining its original buildings and overall plan largely intact. The farmhouse, though altered over time, illustrates clearly how a building evolved according to the finances of successive owners and the changing demands of agricultural practice. The buildings are constructed predominantly from coursed whinstone, characteristic of the district.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site appears on William Edgar's 1741 map of Tweeddale as Nether Horsburgh Mill. A thatched farmhouse existed here in 1754, though this is believed to correspond to ruins sited to the north of the nearby castle rather than the present building. The estate had long associations with the Horsburgh family, who owned both Horsburgh and Nether Horsburgh Castle, but passed out of their hands around 1725. It subsequently changed hands many times, with the Earls of March and the Duke of Queensberry among its owners. The fourth Duke sold the estate in 1788 to an Edinburgh candle maker, Thomas Bell. By 1804, a water-powered threshing mill, kiln and granary had been newly built, the mill being fed from a raised pipe running from the mill lade just below the sluice. The original farmhouse, walled garden, offices and servants' houses were described at around the same time as "all built within these few years." Alexander Campbell was the owner by 1811, after which the estate passed to Robert Nutter Campbell of Kailzie. He was obliged to assign it to trustees, who sold it in 1841 to James Ballantyne of Holylee. It is believed the farmhouse began as a simple late 18th century two-storey, three-bay building with sash windows and harled walls, to which a wing was later added to the west, incorporating triple windows and a new doorway. The range of farm buildings to the rear was originally built as offices, stables and servants' quarters. An unusual and undated stone carved with a Latin cross within a circle has been built into the east elevation of this range. The site of the mill wheel and kiln remains visible, as does a sluice on the mill lade. Sited nearby is the ruin of the 16th century Nether Horsburgh Castle, a scheduled monument listed separately.

FARMHOUSE: OVERALL FORM AND MATERIALS

The farmhouse is a two-storey-and-attic building of five bays in near L-plan form. The original portion, to the east, is a three-bay, T-plan house with a central stair bay projecting to the rear. A later two-bay-by-three-bay L-plan extension adjoins to the west. A further two-storey, flat-roofed extension was subsequently added in the rear re-entrant angle. A range of single and one-and-a-half-storey farm buildings adjoins to the rear. The farmhouse is built from coursed rubble whinstone, concealed on the principal elevation by harling. Plain offset quoins appear at the angles and window margins.

FARMHOUSE: PRINCIPAL (SOUTH) ELEVATION

The older, three-bay portion occupies the right-hand side of this elevation, with a central entrance door — now replaced by French windows — and regular fenestration. To the left, the later two-bay extension features a pilastered door surround to the right (with later multi-paned glazing and a timber door), and a window aligned above it at first-floor level. To the left of the door, tripartite windows appear at both ground and first-floor levels. The entire elevation has been harled and re-roofed at the time of the extension's construction to conceal the change in the building line, although the first-floor window heights differ visibly between the two building phases. A low garden wall adjoins at the south-east angle.

FARMHOUSE: WEST ELEVATION

This two-storey, three-bay gable end has a modern timber conservatory to the ground-floor right and centre, with three regularly placed bays at first-floor level, the centre and right windows being blind. The rear of the adjoining office and farm range is recessed to the left.

FARMHOUSE: REAR (NORTH) ELEVATION

To the left, the blind rear elevation of the original house has the stair bay projecting to the centre. The ground-floor centre and left of the original house are concealed by the adjoining range, while the right side of the original house and all of the west extension's elevation are concealed by the two-storey, three-bay flat-roofed extension. A blank wall end projects to the right.

FARMHOUSE: EAST ELEVATION

The gabled east end has a later window to the centre of the ground floor; the rest of this elevation is blind. A one-and-a-half-storey outhouse adjoins at the north-east angle of the rear stair, with a large window to the right and a small window to the upper left; a timber-boarded door with a small glazed central pane faces the left return. A recessed continuous range of single-storey farm buildings adjoins to the right return. Reading from left to right, this range comprises a bothy-style building with a later gabled timber porch at the door and rectangular windows; a long blind building with a central timber-boarded door; a pair of large, late rectangular cart openings with timber-boarded folding doors with small glazing panes at the top; and, at the right end of the range, four stable entrances.

FARMHOUSE: WINDOWS, ROOF AND RAINWATER GOODS

The main elevations of the farmhouse have three-pane glazing in timber sash-and-case windows, with smaller plate-glass upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes. Some four-pane and twelve-pane glazing in timber sash-and-case windows appears to the rear. The roof is pitched slate with lead ridging, flashing and valleys, and plain skews and putts to the farmhouse. Rainwater goods are painted cast iron. The chimney stacks are of coursed whinstone and ashlar to the gableheads, with plain ashlar neck copes; few cans remain. The west stack is now at roofline level as a result of the later extension. The later extension has taller harled wallhead stacks with red sandstone quoins.

FARMHOUSE: INTERIOR

A central stone-flagged passage leads to a pine staircase with turned balusters: a single flight with an open well rises to the first floor, and a closed flight continues to the attic. Some ceiling cornices survive. The east room has a stone bead-moulded fireplace surround. The later extension retains some timber panelling. The later south-west room has a timber-and-gesso chimneypiece and a pilastered tripartite window.

WALLED GARDEN

The walled garden is rectangular, formed from whinstone rubble walls with plain ashlar flat copes to the south, west and north sides. A plain vehicular entrance cuts through the east side of the north wall and is aligned with a pedestrian entrance in the south wall, where the walls sweep down to form an inverted semicircle bisected by a path. The east wall and the south-east angle boundary are formed by the rear of the single-storey farm building range and the farmhouse itself.

FARM BUILDINGS: OVERVIEW

The farm steading comprises the west range adjoining the farmhouse, the south block containing a cart shed, byre and stables, the former mill complex to the east, a byre and stable range to the north, and a central cattle court with an attached byre. The spaces between the buildings are cobbled. The farm buildings are of coursed and random whinstone with whinstone and tooled ashlar dressings.

SOUTH BLOCK: CART SHED, BYRE AND STABLES

The single-storey cart shed to the west has three segmental-headed openings with whinstone voussoirs and piers, with blind returns. The north-facing byre is one-and-a-half storeys and five bays, with a single window with tabbed ashlar quoins to the first, third and fifth bays, and similarly styled doorways to the second and fourth bays — the left door now blind — with piend-roofed timber hayloft doors breaking the eaves. On the east elevation, the gable end of the byre to the right has a rectangular-headed cart opening with a sliding timber door; to the left, a lean-to return of the stables has a now-blind door abutting the byre. The south-facing stable has a catslide roof formed from the rear of the byre, with what were formerly three rectangular-headed cart shed openings now infilled with timber stable doors, and a separate pedestrian door to the left.

FORMER MILL COMPLEX (EAST)

The former water-powered threshing mill and granary is one-and-a-half storeys and T-plan in form. The west elevation is symmetrical and five bays wide at ground floor level, with small square windows with whinstone voussoir lintels and six-pane timber sash-and-case windows surviving to the first, third and fifth bays, and latched timber-boarded doors to the second and fourth bays. A boarded hayloft door with a piended roof breaks the eaves at the second bay. The left return has a gabled end with an arch-headed timber-boarded door to the upper floor; the right return was formerly the same but has had the door infilled to form a small square window. The north elevation shows the return of the granary advanced to the right, with an infilled slot for the water wheel in the re-entrant angle and a door to the ground floor to the left of the east wing. The advanced centre of the east elevation formerly contained a partially demolished kiln and smithy, of which remains of rough whinstone walling survive at ground floor level along with remnants of the kiln and an interior fireplace. At first-floor level, a central doorway — formerly internal — survives with tooled ashlar quoins and remnants of the adjoining gable; various joist holes are also visible. The returns of the east elevation and west wing, both blind, form the south elevation.

STABLE AND BYRE RANGE (NORTH)

This is a single-storey, four-bay, symmetrical rectangular-plan range with segmental-headed cart openings to the first and fourth bays, each with a half-height timber-boarded gate, and doorways to the two central bays. A small window appears to the right in the left return; the right return and its return are concealed by a later modern barn.

CENTRAL CATTLE COURT AND ATTACHED BYRE

Whinstone rubble walls to the north, west and south form the cattle court, with an entrance to the north-west now covered by a partially open timber gabled roof. Bounding the court to the east is a single-storey whinstone L-plan byre, mostly blind, with a door to the north and an entrance from the court to the west. A ventilation roof with what appears to be slating survives partially.