Byre And Stables, Cartshed, Nether Horsburgh

Nether Horsburgh Farm House, Walled Garden and Farm Buildings is a substantial working farmstead dating from around 1800, with a mid-19th century addition to the farmhouse and further farm buildings added throughout the 19th century. The complex is constructed principally from coursed and random whinstone rubble, with plain ashlar and tooled ashlar dressings throughout. It is listed as a good, little-altered example of a Scottish farm steading in which the original buildings and overall plan have survived largely intact, and as an illustration of how a farmhouse could evolve over time in response to changes in ownership, finances, and agricultural practice.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Before the present farm was built, maps show this site as Nether Horsburgh Mill. A thatched farmhouse existed here in 1754, though this is believed to have been the ruins now sited to the north of the castle. The estate had long connections with the Horsburgh family, who owned both Horsburgh and Nether Horsburgh Castle (both listed separately), but passed from that family around 1725. It subsequently changed hands many times, with the Earls of March and the Duke of Queensberry among its owners. The fourth Duke sold the estate to an Edinburgh candle maker, Thomas Bell, in 1788.

The water-powered threshing mill, kiln, and granary were recorded as newly built in 1804, fed by a raised pipe running from the mill lade just below the sluice. The original farmhouse, walled garden, offices, and servants' houses in the adjoining range were described at the same period as "all built within these few years." Alexander Campbell was recorded as owner by 1811, and the estate subsequently passed to Robert Nutter Campbell of Kailzie, who was obliged to assign it to trustees. They sold it in 1841 to James Ballantyne of Holylee (listed separately).

It is believed the farmhouse began as a simple two-storey, three-bay late 18th century building with sash windows and harled walls. A wing was later added to the west, with triple windows and a new doorway, and a range of farm buildings was added to the rear, originally serving as offices, stables, and servants' quarters. Nearby stands the ruin of the 16th century Nether Horsburgh Castle, a scheduled monument listed separately. The site of the mill wheel and kiln remain visible, as does a sluice on the mill lade.

FARMHOUSE AND ADJOINING RANGE

The farmhouse is a two-storey and attic, five-bay, near L-plan building. The original three-bay, T-plan house lies to the east, with a central stair bay projecting to the rear. A later two-bay by three-bay L-plan extension adjoins to the west of the house, with a further two-storey, flat-roofed extension filling the rear re-entrant angle. A range of single- and one-and-a-half-storey farm buildings adjoins to the rear. The farmhouse walls are coursed rubble whinstone, concealed on the principal elevation by harling. Plain offset quoins appear at the angles and around window openings.

South (principal) elevation: The older three-bay portion occupies the right-hand side, with a central entrance door — now replaced by French windows — and regular fenestration. The later two-bay extension to the left has a pilastered door surround on the right (fitted with later multi-paned glazing and a timber door), with a window directly above at first-floor level; the left side of this extension has a tripartite window to both floors. The entire elevation has been harled and re-roofed, at the time of the later construction, to conceal the join between the two building phases, though the difference in first-floor window heights between the two phases remains visible. A low garden wall adjoins at the south-east angle.

West elevation: Two storeys, three bays, at the end of the house. A modern timber conservatory occupies the ground floor to the right and centre. Three regularly placed windows appear at first-floor level, with the centre and right windows blind. The rear of the adjoined office and farm range is recessed to the left.

North (rear) elevation: To the left, the original house presents a blind elevation with the stair bay projecting to the centre. The ground-floor centre and left of this portion are concealed by the adjoined range, while the right side of the original house and the full elevation of the western extension are concealed by the two-storey, three-bay flat-roofed extension. A projecting blind wall end closes the composition to the right.

East elevation: A gabled end with a later window to the centre of the ground floor; the rest of this elevation is blind. A one-and-a-half-storey outhouse adjoins the north-east angle of the rear stair, with a large window to the right and a small window to the upper left; a timber-boarded door with a small glazed central pane appears on the left return. A recessed, continuous range of single-storey farm buildings extends to the right return. Running from left to right, this comprises: a bothy-style building with a later gabled timber porch at the door and rectangular windows; a long blind building with a central timber-boarded door; a pair of large, late rectangular cart openings with timber-boarded folding doors with small glazing panes at the top; and, at the right of the range, four stable entrances.

Windows throughout the main elevations of the farmhouse are timber sash and case, glazed with three panes (with smaller plate-glass upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes). Some four- and twelve-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows appears to the rear. The roof is pitched slate with lead ridging, flashing, and valleys; plain skews and putts to the farmhouse. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Gablehead stacks are coursed whinstone and ashlar, with plain ashlar neck copes; few cans remain. The west stack is now at roofline level due to the later extension. The later extension has taller harled wallhead stacks with red sandstone quoins.

INTERIOR

A central stone-flagged passage leads to a pine staircase with turned balusters: a single flight with an open well rising to the first floor, and a closed flight continuing to the attic. Some ceiling cornices survive. The east room has a stone bead-moulded fireplace surround. Some timber panelling survives within the later extension. The later south-west room has a timber and gesso chimneypiece and also a pilastered tripartite window.

An unusual undated stone carved with a Latin cross contained within a circle has been built into the east elevation of the rear range.

WALLED GARDEN

A rectangular walled garden formed from whinstone rubble walls with plain ashlar flat copes to the south, west, and north sides. A plain vehicular entrance cuts through the east end of the north wall and is aligned with a pedestrian entrance in the south wall, where the walls sweep down to form an inverted semicircle bisected by a path. The east wall and south-east angle boundary are formed by the rear of the single-storey farm building range and the farmhouse itself.

FARM BUILDINGS

The farm steading comprises the west range adjoining the farmhouse, a south block containing the cart shed, byre, and stables, a former mill complex to the east, a byre and stable range to the north, and a central cattle court with an attached byre. The ground between buildings is cobbled.

South block — cart shed, byre, and stables: A single-storey cart shed to the west has three segmental-headed openings with whinstone voussoirs and piers, with blind returns. The north-facing one-and-a-half-storey, five-bay byre has single windows — with tabbed ashlar quoins — to the first, third, and fifth bays, and similarly styled doorways to the second and fourth bays (the left-hand door is now blind), with piend-roofed timber hayloft doors breaking the eaves line. On the east elevation, the gable end of the byre appears to the right with a rectangular-headed cart opening fitted with a sliding timber door; to the left, a lean-to return of the stables has a now-blind door abutting the byre. The south-facing stable has a catslide roof formed from the rear of the byre; what were formerly three rectangular-headed cart shed openings have been in-filled with timber stable doors, with a separate pedestrian door to the left.

Former mill complex to the east: A one-and-a-half-storey, T-plan former water-powered threshing mill and granary. The west elevation has a symmetrical five-bay ground floor: small square windows with whinstone voussoir lintels and six-pane timber sash and case windows survive to the first, third, and fifth bays, and latched timber-boarded doors to the second and fourth bays; a boarded hayloft door with a piended roof breaks the eaves of the second bay. The left return has a gabled end with an arch-headed timber-boarded door to the upper floor; the right return was originally identical but the door has been in-filled to form a small square window. The north elevation shows the return of the granary advanced to the right, with an in-filled slot for the water wheel in the re-entrant angle and a door at ground-floor level to the left of the east wing. The advanced centre of the east elevation formerly contained a partially demolished kiln and smithy: rough whinstone walling survives at ground-floor level, with remnants of the kiln and an interior fireplace; a central doorway at first-floor level has tooled ashlar quoins, with remnants of the adjoining gable alongside and various joist holes visible. The returns of the east elevation and the west wing, which are blind, form the south elevation.

Stable and byre range to the north: A single-storey, four-bay, symmetrical rectangular-plan range with segmental-headed cart openings to the first and fourth bays — each fitted with a half-height timber-boarded gate — and doorways to the central bays. A small window appears to the right in the left return; the right return and the return beyond are concealed by a later modern barn.

Central cattle court and attached byre: Whinstone rubble walls to the north, west, and south form the cattle court, with an entrance to the north-west, now covered by a partially open timber gabled roof. Bounding the court to the east is a single-storey whinstone L-plan byre, mostly blind, with a door to the north and an entrance from the court to the west. A ventilation roof, partially slated, survives.