Caberston, Peebles Road, Walkerburn

Caberston, Peebles Road, Walkerburn

A classical farmhouse and steading designed by James Brown, wright of Innerleithen, in 1850. The complex comprises a main farmhouse with associated rear wing set on a terraced site, overlooking a single-storey U-plan steading with stables and a two-storey multi-bayed vernacular cart shed and store enclosing a courtyard to the south.

The farmhouse is a two-storey structure with attic, arranged on a three-bay rectangular plan in coursed whinstone with tabbed sandstone quoins. The principal (west) elevation features a panelled timber door within a projecting architraved doorcase with canopy and pediment supported by pilasters on a blocking course, all painted white, with flanking windows. The first floor has three regularly placed bays with projecting sills and margins and tabbed quoins; the attic is lit by a pair of roof lights. The north elevation shows the main house to the right with a central wallhead stack and a single bay to each floor, with the rear wing to the left featuring a central single bay to each floor and an additional lower extension adjoining the left return. The south elevation mirrors the north, with a wallhead stack and regularly placed bays to the left, while the rear wing is slightly recessed to the right. Windows throughout are twelve-pane timber sash and case. The roof is piended grey slate with lead ridging and regularly placed two-pane cast-iron Carron lights to the main attic elevation. Tall coursed whinstone wallhead stacks with ashlar quoins to north and south elevations feature thin ashlar neck copes and paired plain cans. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The steading comprises a north range of single-storey U-plan construction with arms extending east and west with blind ends, the majority of original openings now infilled with modern windows and doors. A pair of semi-circular coursed whinstone gatepiers, one adjoining the west arm of the north range and the other at the northwest angle of the south range, enclose the now-tarmaced courtyard, with a repeated arrangement at the east end.

The two-storey south range functions as cart shed and store with a multi-bayed rectangular plan. The principal (north) elevation comprises, to the far left, a blind wall with a rectangular hayloft entrance to the upper floor; to the centre left, paired doors and window with painted surrounds and a rectangular hayloft door to the first floor aligned with the central bay, with a smaller window to the right. The centre right contains four segmental-headed open cart arches on whinstone piers with a loft window aligned with the outer piers. To the right is a mostly blind wall with a loft window to the upper left. The west elevation features a central segmental-head cart arch now infilled with a central semi-glazed panelled door and tongue and groove to the flanks with four-pane glazing to upper portions; a gatepier adjoins the left angle, with the upper storey blind. The south (rear) elevation is mostly blind with ventilation slits to the left of the upper level; to the right is a lean-to extension of similar height to the main structure and a smaller lean-to in the left re-entrant angle with a door in the left return. Modern glazing has been installed to the refurbished north range with leaded diamond quarry glazing to the upper level of the south range. A piended slate roof with lead ridging covers all structures, with painted cast-iron rainwater goods.

The farmhouse is in use as residential accommodation; the steading is in use as stables and stores in the south range and offices in the north range.