Cattle Court And Byre, Nether Horsburgh

Nether Horsburgh Farm House, Walled Garden and Farm Buildings is a substantial Scottish farmstead dating from around 1800, with significant additions made in the mid-19th century. The complex comprises a two-storey and attic farmhouse, an adjoining range of farm buildings, a walled garden, and a collection of agricultural structures including a mill, kiln, granary, byre and cattle court. The buildings are listed as a good example of a little-altered farm steading, with its original buildings and overall plan surviving largely intact. The farmhouse itself illustrates how a rural building would evolve over time in response to finances, changing ownership, and shifting agricultural practices.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The site has a long history. A 16th-century castle, Nether Horsburgh Castle, stands nearby as a scheduled monument and is listed separately. The Horsburgh family, who once owned both Horsburgh and Nether Horsburgh Castle, gave up the estate around 1725. Earlier maps show the site as Nether Horsburgh Mill, and a thatched farmhouse was recorded here in 1754, though this is believed to correspond to ruins situated to the north of the castle rather than the present building.

The estate changed hands numerous times. The Earls of March and the Duke of Queensberry were among its owners. The fourth Duke sold the property in 1788 to Thomas Bell, an Edinburgh candle maker. By 1804 the water-powered threshing mill, kiln and granary had been "newly built," and the original farmhouse, walled garden, offices and servants' houses were described as "all built within these few years." The mill was fed by a raised pipe running from the mill lade, just below the sluice. Alexander Campbell owned the estate by 1811, after which it passed to Robert Nutter Campbell of Kailzie. He was obliged to assign the estate to trustees, who sold it in 1841 to James Ballantyne of Holylee (listed separately).

It is believed the farmhouse began as a simple two-storey, three-bay late 18th-century building with sash windows and harled walls. A wing was subsequently added to the west, with triple windows and a new doorway. A range of buildings added to the rear was originally used as offices, stables and servants' quarters.

THE FARMHOUSE

The farmhouse is an approximately L-plan building of five bays in total, two storeys with attic. The original three-bay, T-plan house lies to the east, 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 occupies the rear re-entrant angle. The main body of the farmhouse is built in coursed rubble whinstone, though this is concealed on the principal elevation by harling. Plain offset quoins appear at the angles and around the window openings.

South (principal) elevation: The older three-bay section occupies the right-hand portion of this elevation. It has a central entrance door — now replaced by French windows — and regular fenestration. The later two-bay extension to the left has a pilastered door surround on the right side (with later multi-paned glazing and a timber door), a window aligned above it at first-floor level, and a tripartite window at both ground and first floors on the left side. The entire elevation is harled and was re-roofed at the time of the extension's construction to conceal the junction between the two building phases, although the difference in first-floor window heights between the two phases remains visible. A low garden wall adjoins the building at the south-east angle.

West elevation: Two storeys, three bays wide, forming the end of the house. A modern timber conservatory occupies the ground-floor right and centre. Three regularly placed windows sit at first-floor level, with the centre and right windows blind. The rear of the adjoined office and farm range is set back to the left.

North (rear) elevation: To the left, the blind rear elevation of the original house with the stair bay projecting at centre. The ground-floor centre and left of the original house are concealed by the adjoined farm range, and the right portion of the original house and the entire west extension are hidden behind the two-storey, three-bay flat-roofed addition. A projecting blind wall-end stands to the right.

East elevation: A gabled end with a later window at the centre of the ground floor; the rest of the elevation is blind. A one-and-a-half-storey outhouse adjoins the north-east angle of the rear stair, with a large window to the right and a small window to the upper left; the left return has a timber-boarded door with a small glazed central pane. To the right return, a continuous single-storey farm building range runs from left to right: 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 and small glazing panes at the top; and, to the far right of the range, four stable entrances.

Windows and roof: 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; plain skews and putts to the farmhouse. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout. The gablehead stacks are in coursed whinstone and ashlar (the west stack now sits at roofline level as a result of the later extension) with plain ashlar neck copes; few cans remain. The later extension has taller harled wallhead stacks with red sandstone quoins.

Interior: A central stone-flagged passage leads to a pine staircase with turned balusters. There is a single open-well flight to the first floor and a closed flight continuing to the attic. Some ceiling cornices survive. The east room has a stone bead-moulded fireplace surround. Some timber panelling remains within the later extension. The later south-west room contains a timber and gesso chimneypiece and a pilastered tripartite window.

THE WALLED GARDEN

A rectangular walled garden lies adjacent to the farmhouse. It is formed from whinstone rubble walls with plain ashlar flat copes on the south, west and north sides. A plain vehicular entrance cuts through the east portion 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.

THE FARM BUILDINGS

The farm steading is composed of several distinct elements: a west range adjoining the farmhouse (as described under the east elevation above), a south block containing a cart shed, byre and stables, a 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 buildings are cobbled. The farm buildings are constructed in coursed and random whinstone with whinstone and tooled ashlar dressings.

South block (cart shed, byre and stables): A single-storey cart shed to the west has three segmental-headed openings with whinstone voussoirs and piers, with blind returns. Facing north, a one-and-a-half-storey, five-bay byre has single windows with tabbed ashlar quoins in the first, third and fifth bays, and similarly styled doorways in 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 is to the right with a rectangular-headed cart opening fitted 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. It was formerly three rectangular-headed cart shed openings, now filled in with timber stable doors, and a separate pedestrian door to the left.

Former mill complex to the east: A one-and-a-half-storey, T-plan former water-powered threshing mill and granary. The west elevation presents a symmetrical five-bay ground floor: small square windows with whinstone voussoir lintels and six-pane timber sash and case windows survive in the first, third and fifth bays, with latched timber-boarded doors to the second and fourth bays; a boarded hayloft door with a piended roof breaks the eaves of the second bay. The left return has a gabled end with an arch-headed timber-boarded door to the upper floor; the right return formerly matched the left but the door has been filled in to form a small square window. The north elevation has the return of the granary advanced to the right, with an in-filled 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 rough whinstone walling survives at ground-floor level along with remnants of the kiln and an interior fireplace. At first-floor level there is a formerly interior doorway with tooled ashlar quoins and remnants of the adjoining gable; various joist holes are also visible. The returns of the east elevation and the west wing form the south elevation, which is blind. The site of the mill wheel and kiln remain visible, as does a sluice on the mill lade.

Stable and byre range to the north: A single-storey, four-bay, symmetrical rectangular-plan range. The first and fourth bays have segmental-headed cart openings each fitted with half-height timber-boarded gates. Doorways occupy the central bays. A small window appears in the right side of the left return; the right return and the rear of the range 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 that is now covered by a partially open timber gabled roof. Bounding the court to the east is a single-storey, whinstone, L-plan byre that is mostly blind, with a door to the north and an entrance from the court to the west. A slated ventilation roof survives.

ADDITIONAL NOTE

An unusual undated stone with a carved Latin cross contained within a circle has been built into the east elevation of the adjoining farm range. The buildings are constructed predominantly from coursed whinstone, as is characteristic of many structures in this district.