Birkhill

Birkhill is an earlier 19th-century Cottage Ornée, likely inspired by contemporary villa pattern books. It is a single storey and attic building with a rectangular plan and a half-piended roof. The roof features overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. The exterior is constructed of roughly pointed squared red granite courses.

The south elevation, the principal facade, has three bays. The central bay features a two-pane glazed upper door and a single window to the left. A half-gabled bay to the right incorporates a broad window to the ground floor and a small square window to the gablehead. The north elevation has a half-gabled bay on the left, but the rest of the elevation is obscured by a modern, flat-roofed addition. A blank gable end is visible on one side, punctuated by a tall wallhead stack that breaks the eaves. The west elevation has a single window centrally positioned on the gable end. Modern fixed-pane plate glass windows are fitted throughout. The roof is covered in grey slates with lead flashing.

The interior was not inspected in 2002.

The cottage’s design may have drawn from publications such as Robert Lugar's The Country Gentleman's Architect (1807), Architectural Sketches for Cottages, Rural Dwellings and Villas (1811), John Claudius Loudon’s A Treatise on Forming, Improving and Managing Country Residences (1806) and John Plaw's Sketches for Country Houses, Villas and Rural Dwellings (1800). The asymmetrical design and overhanging eaves represent the emerging Picturesque or Cottage Ornée style, typified by villas such as Cronkhill in Salop (1802) designed by John Nash. It was likely originally associated with the Tillypronie estate.

The statutory address is Tillypronie, Nether Birkhill, and the property lies within the Cairngorms National Park. Further references include Robert Lugar’s Villa Architecture (1828) published by J. Taylor in London, and John Plaw’s Sketches for Country Houses, Villas and Rural Dwellings (1800), also published by J. Taylor in London.