Lighthouse Retreat And Keeper's Hold, St Abb's Head Lighthouse

Lightkeeper's Cottage is a single-storey, four-bay, M-gabled cottage with a lower, single-bay wing, likely dating to around 1862 and built by David and Thomas Stevenson, with later additions and alterations. The cottage is constructed of whitewashed brick with painted dressings, and has a base course, eaves course, and projecting cills. The north-east, or entrance, elevation features a pair of boarded timber doors slightly off-centre to the right, accompanied by a three-pane fanlight. There are single windows in the left bay and outer bays on either side. A lower wing is recessed slightly to the right and includes a boarded timber door also off-centre. The south-west, or rear, elevation has a three-bay principal block with a small window to the outer right and single windows to the left. The lower wing is recessed to the outer left. A modern garage block stands in front. The cottage now has modern four-pane timber windows, a grey slate roof, stone-coped skews, and coped sandstone ridge and apex stacks. The interior was not inspected in 1999.

Retreat House and Keeper’s Hold is a two-storey, four-bay subdivided house with single-storey lean-to additions to both sides, also built around 1862. It is constructed of whitewashed brick with painted dressings, as is the cottage, and exhibits a base course, eaves course, and projecting cills. The north-west, or entrance, elevation includes a two-storey projection offset to the left centre with bipartite windows at both floors. A coped wall to the right obscures an exterior stair accessing a pair of boarded timber doors at the first floor of the recessed bay to the right. Single windows are located at both floors in the outer bays. Single-storey, two-bay lean-to additions are recessed to the left and right, with a boarded timber door and single window on the right. The south-west side elevation features an M-gabled principal block with a near full-width lean-to projection to the front. The south-east, or rear, elevation is regularly fenestrated with a three-bay principal block. The north-east side elevation has an M-gabled principal block with a lean-to projection offset to the left centre and a two-storey addition recessed to the outer right. The windows are predominantly 12-pane, horizontal-pane sash and case, with some modern replacements. The roof is grey slate with stone-coped skews, and there are coped sandstone apex stacks. The interior was not inspected in 1999.

Whitewashed rubble boundary walls partially enclose the site, and flanking the entrance are square-plan gatepiers constructed of whitewashed rubble, topped with corniced, pyramidal caps, and featuring a single gate.