Kidshielhaugh

Kidshielhaugh

A mid-19th-century farm building complex with later 19th-century additions, comprising a single-storey group of farm buildings arranged in a distinctive layout. The buildings include a cartshed, granary, two open cattle courts, byres, stabling, and a threshing barn. The main element is one continuous unbroken elevation to the north-west, with two adjacent U-plan courts positioned to the south-east.

North-West Elevation

The north-west elevation displays rubble construction with droved dressings to its right half, and roughly squared sandstone with stugged ashlar dressings elsewhere. Gabled outer bays punctuate the elevation, each with a window at gablehead (the outer right window is blinded; the outer left bay has a 6-pane upper window and shutters). A door sits immediately left of the outer right bay, with two doors serving the left section.

North-East Court

The north-east range's north-east elevation houses a 2-storey cartshed and granary on the first floor. At ground level, five shallow segmental-arched stop-chamfered openings are set into the wall, with a boarded 2-leaf double door in the outer right bay. First-floor bays contain 3-pane windows and vented openings in each bay.

The north-east range's south-west elevation is accessed by three steps to a boarded door in the outer right bay. The four remaining bays have first-floor openings, originally fitted with 3-pane upper windows and vents, though some are now partly boarded.

The north-west range's south-east elevation features a double opening serving the adjacent byre at the outer left, with a timber-boarded partition incorporating a 6-pane opening at the centre.

The south-west range's north-east elevation is constructed of timber boarding and contains a double opening (serving the byre) at the centre. Rubble walls with rounded coping enclose the cattle court, interrupted by stop-chamfered square-plan piers, each crowned with pyramidal coping. The south-west range projects immediately adjacent to the north-east range of the south-west court.

South-West Court

The north-east range's north-east elevation, constructed of rubble, contains a boarded door flanked to the left by a glazed and vented opening. The interior preserves cast-iron trevises in place with timber boarding, a hay heck, and a cast-iron corner basin.

The north-east range's south-west elevation contains two double openings divided by a central brick pier and another in the right bay. A timber-slatted window opening sits in the outer left bay.

The north-west range's south-east elevation is a 5-bay front with an M-gabled projection at the centre, featuring a window and boarded door to the south-east. A segmental-arched opening appears in the left bay at the south-west return elevation, with a later brick wallhead stack in the right bay. The interior contains brick hen compartments within the south-east projection. Timber boarding and a double opening (serving the adjacent byre) occupy the bays right of centre, whilst two wide boarded doors are positioned in the bays left of centre. Two square-plan gate piers with pyramidal coping stand to the south-west.

The south-east range's north-west elevation contains three door openings, one accessing the cattle court. Its south-east elevation, constructed of red sandstone with a rubble foundation course, features a gabled bay to the outer right with a window opening at gablehead; the remaining bays are blank.

The south-west range's north-east elevation is a 6-bay front with a boarded door in the outer right bay. A split boarded door flanked by glazed and vented window openings appears in bays to the inner left and right and in the penultimate right bay. Two-leaf boarded doors hang above a corresponding window opening at eaves above the split boarded door. A segmental-arched opening with a 2-leaf boarded door occupies the penultimate left bay. The penultimate left bay also contains a boarded door. The interior preserves the threshing barn across all bays except the outer right. The south-west range's south-west elevation displays a 2-leafed boarded door to an opening with a half-piended roof breaking the eaves left of centre, with some gearing still in place for the wheel.

Roofing and Fittings

Slate roofs cover the complex, with half-slating to the byre of the south-west court's north-west range, south-east elevation (right section), and to the south-east projection from the centre of the same range. Ridge vents serve the threshing barn. Nineteenth-century flush 2-pane skylights punctuate the roofscape.