Bolt Cottage, Traquair

Bolt Cottage, located in Traquair, is an earlier 19th-century pair of single-storey, multi-bayed rectangular-plan vernacular cottages, which were formerly three or four small cottages. One of the cottages features an open porch. The exterior is mostly harled and painted, with tabbed red sandstone dressings and long and short quoins. There is some evidence of coursed stone on Forester's Cottage, which is now painted and covered beneath harl on the rest of the elevations. The skew gables are made of red sandstone and have plain putts.

On the northwest (principal) elevation, to the left, there are three regularly placed windows with tabbed surrounds, plain sills, and lintels. The entrance door is located in the fourth bay and is accompanied by an open timber porch with a pitched slate roof that breaks the eaves of the main cottage. In the center and to the right, there were formerly two three-bay cottages with central entrance doors flanked by windows; however, the central cottage door has been infilled to create an additional window.

The northeast and southwest elevations feature gabled ends with regularly placed windows, and the gablehead rises into a stack. The southeast (rear) elevation is regularly fenestrated and includes a late 19th-century extension to the right, which formerly led to rear wash houses.

The cottages have 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. The pitched grey slate roof is finished with lead ridging, flashings, and valleys, and there are painted cast-iron rainwater goods. The left cottage (Bolt) has a pair of harled stacks—one at the roofline and one at the gablehead—each with later single cans. The right cottage (Forester's) has a pair of taller harled stacks with red sandstone neck copes, a tall single can at the gablehead stack, and a pair of later cans at the roofline stack.

The interior was not seen in 2002 but is in use as residential accommodation.