Easter Inch Farmsteading Cottage, Blackburn Road, Bathgate

Easter Inch Farmsteading Cottage dates from 1869 and has undergone later alterations and additions. The steading is arranged in a U-plan, with a courtyard partly enclosed to the east by a wall. A farmhouse is incorporated into the north range, featuring a three-stage Baronial tower and pend. The building is constructed of random and squared rubble with ashlar dressings.

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

The courtyard elevation features a flat arch to the pend and an engaged, square-section tower flanking the left side. The tower’s lower stage has rounded arrises, corbelled to square above the pend with a window, and breaks the eaves with a corbel table, dropping as an apron below the wallhead window, topped with a swept pyramidal roof and finial. Flanking bays are irregular, including a two-storey gabled later addition to the left, and a gabled dormerhead to a first-floor window to the right. A single-storey cottage is located to the outer right, with a modern porch addition and a picture window.

The west range houses a cartshed and granary at the centre with two wide segmental carriage arches, flanked to the right by a narrower arch to the court. A door is situated to the penultimate right, with a later flat-arch located by the re-entrant angle. A blank section is present at the ground to the rear, with small ventilation grilles for the byre and a square opening under the eaves for the hayloft. A flanking gabled hayloft dormer is also present. The gabled return to the north reveals two ground-floor windows (one blinded) and a single gablehead window.

The windows are narrow, eight-pane, timber sash and case. The roof is covered with grey slates, and features plain barge boards. A coping band defines the stone stacks. An enclosing rubble wall stands tall along part of the boundary. This is an architect-designed farm court, distinguished by the tower and pend.