94 Covington Road

This is a row of seven single-storey cottages dating from the earlier 19th century, situated along Covington Road in the Newtown of Covington. The cottages are each three or four bays wide and characterized by corrugated iron roofs, with numbers 82 and 86 retaining reed-thatch roofs. The construction employs random rubble with sandstone ashlar window margins. The front doors are predominantly timber-boarded, and the windows are timber sash and case windows with four panes of glass. Short stone chimney stacks topped with clay cans are also present.

The row is remarkable for its length and relatively unaltered appearance. The corrugated iron roofs contribute to a particularly striking and picturesque appearance. It’s unusual to find that neither the front nor rear elevations have later rooflights or dormers, and very few rear extensions have been added since the early 20th century. Originally, all the cottages would have been thatched, with the thatch on number 86 replaced in the early 1990s.

This row of cottages is a significant example of traditional buildings with a surviving thatched roof, a feature increasingly rare in Scotland. A 2016 survey by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings identified only around 200 such buildings remaining, primarily in small rural communities. These buildings are valuable because they demonstrate traditional building methods and materials, offering insights into earlier ways of life and skills.

The row appears on the 1864 Ordnance Survey map. The row was upgraded from a category C listing to a category B in 1989, as part of a 2017-19 review of thatched buildings.