Octagonal Dairy, The Glen

The Octagonal Dairy at The Glen was built around 1880 for Sir Charles Tennant, designed and constructed by local masons and joiners. This single-storey, multi-bayed, rectangular-plan dairy features a picturesque design with a canted gabled porch and an octagonal cold room. It is constructed from coursed and squared local whinstone rubble, accented with yellow sandstone ashlar dressings, and has an octagonal piended roof at the eastern end.

The northeast elevation is very wide, showcasing a canted timber entrance porch supported by paired heavy turned timber columns. This porch holds a pitched timber gable with a spiked finial and has a catslide roof on the flanks. To the rear left, there is a matching upright with timber balustraded in-fill at the bottom. The entrance porch contains a canted timber boarded door leading to the octagonal dairy on the left and a similarly styled door on the right that leads to the house. To the right of the entrance porch, there are two rectangular windows, while to the left, the advanced octagonal dairy is visible.

The southeast elevation features the single-storey octagonal end with a window in an ashlar surround on each face, topped by an overhanging roof with exposed timber rafters. The southwest elevation is regularly fenestrated and includes a circa 1920 timber and glazing lean-to glasshouse. The northwest elevation has a gabled end, originally featuring a now-blind central window, which is concealed behind a much later timber lean-to store that has an entrance on the left return.

The building has a pitched slate roof with overhanging eaves and exposed painted timber rafters, along with lead roll-ridging. The dairy's octagonal piended roof also features lead roll-ridging and a ventilated section near the apex, topped with a spiked timber finial.

Inside, the original timber work is evident on the boarded doors and skirting boards. The octagonal dairy has half-height tiling, a tiled floor with squares and diamonds inset instead of corner angles, and marble shelving on arched brackets. A central marble console with bracketed legs supports a round marble tabletop, which has a stalk holding another round top.