Damhead Cottage, Cottages, Traquair Mill

The Old Byre, Cottages, Traquair Mill is a 1778 building attributed to John Haldane, with repairs to an earlier kiln and 19th-century additions. The complex comprises a rectangular, two-storey and attic mill building linked to an earlier gabled kiln building (on a sloping site) by a later two-storey, three-bay granary and cartshed, with a later former wheel house to the east. The construction is of random whinstone rubble with rough sandstone long and short quoins, featuring timber lintels to doors and windows, some with whinstone lintels. The roofs are pitched and piended.

The northeast elevation shows an entrance door on the ground floor left, with a small window to the right and above the doorframe. A small, square window aligns with the door at the first floor. A large lean-to obscures much of the mill’s fenestration, with a door and window on its front. Adjacent to the left are the remains of a high lean-to building, with a lower lean-to adjoining at right angles. A later, single-storey former wheel building is located to the southeast, with irregular fenestration and a piended corrugated metal roof.

The northwest elevation displays a single-storey building abutting the ground floor of the slightly advanced kiln building, featuring a front-facing entrance door and a window to the left return. The upper storey of the kiln has a small square window in the centre. A later two-storey cart shed and byre is centrally located, featuring a pair of segmental-headed cart arches on the ground floor, now covered by later two-leaf, rectangular, boarded gates; a timber-boarded door is aligned with the central pier of the arches, flanked by a small window. An advanced gable-end of the mill is visible to the left, with a chamfered angle to the right of a blind ground floor, and a window at the first floor with a central gablehead window. A blind, canted-end of a lean-to is adjoining to the left.

The southwest elevation, inset into the hillside, shows only the upper level, with an entrance door under a catslide roof rising above the eaves, a blind centre, and a two-storey canted-end to the left with a small square window high under the eaves.

The southeast hillside elevation is an irregular U-plan, mostly blind, featuring an advanced blind gabled end of the kiln to the left, a partially concealed right return, a small door to the right of the central (cart shed) range, and an advanced blind gabled end of the mill building to the right, with remains of a lower lean-to.

Later four and six-pane glazing is found in timber frames in the mill and cartshed; original glazing is missing from the kiln building. Boarded timber doors are present at all doorways. The roofs are slate, with lead ridging, flashing and valleys; some later lead roll ridging is on the kiln building. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are on the mill and cartshed, while the kiln relies on overhanging eaves.

The mill building’s interior is plain stone, now used as a woodworking workshop, with its original room layout, plain stone walls and boarded timber doors. The other buildings in the complex have similar plain stone interiors with timber dressings. No original machinery survives.