Cart Shed And Barn, Traquair House

Cart Shed and Barn at Traquair House

Built around 1749 for Charles Stuart, 5th Earl of Traquair (11th Laird), with improvements made in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is a collection of vernacular outbuildings forming part of the Traquair House estate. The buildings are arranged around an enclosed courtyard and are constructed in whinstone rubble with rough whinstone dressings and pitched gabled roofs.

The complex comprises several distinct structures. The former stables and tack room consist of a pair of partially harled buildings adjoining at right angles. The main building is one-and-a-half storeys with a regular three-bay entrance elevation facing south-east, featuring a central timber boarded entrance door with windows to either side (all with raised margins) and a roof light aligned with the door. The gabled end to the north-east has a former hayloft door in the gablehead (now partially infilled with timber and a glazed multi-pane window above) and a blind gabled end to the south-west. The rear elevation to the north-west is blind. The smaller adjoining building to the south has a single door to the right of its north-east entrance elevation and a blocked door to the left, a central window to the south-east gable, and a central window to the south-west rear elevation.

The former grain bothy is a single-storey structure with a two-bay principal elevation to the south-west, featuring a timber boarded door to the left and a former door to the right (now with timber infill to the bottom and two-pane fixed glazing above). The blind gabled ends to the north-west and south-east bear an inset red cast-iron post box off-centre left in the north-west gable and estate sign boards above. The rear elevation to the north-east has a pair of regularly placed windows with evidence of central alteration. A low whinstone rubble wall extends to the south-east, terminating adjacent to Bachelor's Hall. Cast-iron roof lights serve the front and rear attics.

Bachelor's Hall (now a needlework and clothing shop) is a single-storey, two-bay building with a principal elevation to the north-east featuring a timber boarded entrance door to the right and a small window to the left. The blind gabled ends to the north-west and south-east (the latter rising into a gablehead stack) and the blind south-west rear elevation accommodate two regularly placed cast-iron roof lights serving the attic.

The former cart shed and barn (now the Beer Barn) stands to the north-west as a two-storey structure with an attic and a five-bay principal elevation. Four large segmental-headed cart arches serve bays one through four, each with shaped whinstone voussoirs and two-leaf segmental-headed timber boarded doors. A pedestrian timber boarded entrance door occupies the fifth bay. The upper floor has five very small regularly placed rectangular windows with central iron bars, together with a roof light and ridge ventilator aligned with the fourth bay. The blind gabled ends to the north-east and south-west include a single window to the north-east gablehead, and remnants of an adjoining outhouse survive at the ground floor of the south-west. The rear elevation to the south-east features regularly placed ventilation slits to the ground floor and five windows to the upper floor, styled similarly to those on the north-west elevation.

Glazing varies throughout the complex: the former stables and tack room have four, six and twelve-pane glazing in timber fixed and sash and case windows. The former grain bothy and Bachelor's Hall retain multi-paned glazing in timber sash and case windows, with two-pane cast-iron Carron roof lights serving the other elevations. The upper storey of the Beer Barn has single-pane fixed lights with iron bars; a twelve-pane timber sash and case window serves one side.

All buildings have pitched slate roofs with replacement ridging and tiles cemented at gables in place of skews. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted to the former stables, tack room and Beer Barn; the other buildings have slightly overhanging eaves instead. Single whinstone rubble gablehead stacks of varying heights crown Bachelor's Hall, the former tack room (both with single cans remaining), and the former grain bothy (without cans).

The interiors of most buildings retain plain stone construction, renovated to form modern workshops and retail outlets.