Steading, Cornhill

The steading and farmhouse at Cornhill were built around 1871 for Alex Kay, as the Home Farm to Cornhill House. The complex was designed by William Leiper, and is one of two known steading designs attributed to him; the other is at Glendarvel House in Argyll and Bute.

The farmhouse is a single-storey and attic structure built of random rubble with sandstone dressings. The elevation to the roadway is three bays, with each bay featuring an open eaved gable. An entrance is located to the left of the centre bay. A timber-mullioned and transomed canted bay is present on the ground floor of the left bay, while the centre and right bays have wooden, mullioned and transomed bipartites, each with relieving arches above and a cill course. All gables feature bipartites with mullions and a cill course. A catslide roofed porch is situated to the right.

The steading is arranged in a U-plan, consisting of a single-storey and attic block, a horse engine house, and a detached barn. It is built of random rubble with sandstone dressings and features irregular fenestration. The central range has prominent skylights, while the inner faces of the side ranges display gablet ventilators. The threshing barn has a dormer hoist door under a slated gable on its outer face.

The horse engine house has a polygonal roof supported by stone piers, with wide openings, and abuts the threshing barn. The detached barn has a stone base, two tiers of slit ventilators, a vertically slatted wooden band below a piended roof, and is linked to the main range by later buildings.

All roofs are slated, with open eaves and prominent rafter ends. The steading also features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.