Easter Inch Farmsteading, Blackburn Road, Bathgate

Easter Inch Farmsteading dates to 1869, with subsequent alterations and additions. It is an architect-designed farmstead arranged around a U-shaped courtyard, partially enclosed to the east by a tall rubble wall. A farmhouse is incorporated into the north range, featuring a prominent three-stage Baronial tower and a pend. The steading is constructed of random and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, and has grey slate roofs.

The north range’s outer elevation presents a symmetrical, two-storey, seven-bay residential centrepiece, flanked to the outer right by the gable of the west range. A pointed-arched pend entrance is centrally located within an advanced, gabled bay, featuring a moulded surround with stylised capitals to the supporting columns, and three windows in the gablehead. Three bays flank each side, with a farmhouse to the east and cottages to the west, each having a central door flanked by windows at ground and first floor level, with gabled dormerheads above. A single-storey wing of the farmhouse extends to the outer left, with a slightly advanced outer gable.

The courtyard elevation features a flat-arched pend entrance and an engaged, square-section tower to the left. The tower’s lower stage has rounded arrises, corbelled to square above the pend with a window, and breaks the eaves with a towerhead adorned with a corbel table, which dips as an apron below the wallhead window. It is topped with a swept pyramidal roof and finial. The courtyard elevation also has irregular bays, including a two-storey gabled later addition to the left, and a gabled dormerhead to a first-floor window on the right. A single-storey cottage stands to the outer right, with a modern porch addition and picture window.

The west range accommodates a cartshed and granary at its centre, with two wide segmental carriage arches flanked to the right by a narrower arch leading to the courtyard. A door is located to the penultimate bay on the right, and there is a later flat-arch by the re-entrant angle. The rear elevation is blank, featuring small ventilation grilles to the byre and a square opening under the eaves to the hayloft, flanked by a gabled hayloft dormer. A gabled return to the north displays two ground-floor windows (one blinded) and a single gablehead window.

The windows are narrow, eight-pane, timber sash and case windows. The steading has plain barge boards, a coping band to the stone stacks, and uses plain bargeboards. The enclosing wall is constructed from rubble.