Fluthers Cottage, Earlston

Fluthers Cottage is a small, two-room, single-storey three-bay cottage dating from around the mid-19th century. It is situated in a yard behind the premises of J. A. Halliday, plasterers, on High Street, Earlston. The cottage is listed at category B for its unique survival of vernacular thatch, being one of approximately 200 such buildings remaining in Scotland. These buildings demonstrate traditional building methods and materials and offer important insight into earlier ways of life.

The cottage is constructed of mixed rubble, with squared sandstone dressings. Part of the west gable is rendered. It retains its original thatched roof which is now covered by a corrugated iron roof and features 'boxed' barge-boarding at the eaves. The south elevation is symmetrical, with a pair of 12-pane sash and case windows flanking a timber lean-to porch with a door. A further eight-pane sash and case window is located close to the ground in the west gable.

Notable features include distinctive horizontally-layered turf skewputts, which are possibly unique survivals of a local vernacular technique. Earlier A-frame adze couples have been reinforced with dressed timber couples. There is a timber and corrugated iron-roofed lean-to at the east gable and the thatch is fixed directly onto the purlins. A brick chimneystack at the east was rebuilt in the 20th century.

The cottage was surveyed in March 1985 and the listing record was revised in 2019 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review 2017-19.