Standing Building Recording

Date March 2013

Event ID 994330

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/994330

NT 059 722 A Level 2 standing building survey was undertaken in March 2013 of the Category C listed steading (former manse outbuildings) prior to their conversion to a house. The building consisted of a two-storey gabled rubble built rectangular structure with a slated roof. The building is aligned NNW–SSE and measures c30.5m by 5.7m. The SSW end has a crow-stepped gable with a further crow-stepped gable sited c8m to the NNE. The NNE gable is not stepped and is slightly curved. Chimneys are visible on the two crow-stepped gables and there is a smaller chimney towards the NNE end of the roofline.

The ESE (rear) elevation has seven windows and one doorway. There are three windows with wooden slats, two brick infilled windows, three stone infilled windows and one brick infilled doorway. The WNW (front) elevation has eight windows and seven doorways. There are three windows with wooden slats, three stone infilled windows, one boarded window and one open window, four single open doorways with wooden door, two double doorways/entrances and one partially stone infilled doorway. The SSE crow-stepped gable has one doorway and one stone infilled window. No windows or doorways were visible in the NNW gable. The interior of the structure is currently divided into five areas.

From documentary and cartographic evidence it can be concluded that the earliest part of the outbuildings date to c1695 and is contemporary with the old manse. The earliest section is the SSE end and would have consisted of a two-storey gabled building with crow-stepping on both gables. The moulded doorway on the lower floor would have been the main access to the building and access to the upper section would have been from an external stair (probably wooden) at the front of the structure (WNW elevation). This doorway appears to have been later infilled, and used as a window, before being completely blocked. Roy’s Military Map suggests that the structure had been extended by the mid-18th century.

When the structure was extended (to the NNW) it appears that Areas 1, 2 and 3 were single storey and Area 4 had an upper and lower floor. A doorway was created in the original (NNW) gable end which allowed access to the upper floor of Area 4. This area, which was probably a hayloft, could also be accessed from a stair in Area 3. The external access possibly ceased to be used around about this time and was altered to become a window. The bowing in SSE wall of Area 3, which is the external wall of the original NNW gable, is a common feature of a wall that has a fireplace. If a fireplace does exist in this wall, it is no longer visible, but the chimneys on both crow-stepped gables suggest there may have been at least one fireplace and that the second chimney was added for symmetry. The presence of a fireplace would suggest that the original structure may have been used as a house.

The extension to the original structure consisted of numerous doorways and windows, some of which were later blocked. The doorway in the rear wall, now blocked, must have originally given access to Area 2, which may have been used winnowing barn. Quoin stones visible on both the rear and front elevations indicate where the original structure ended.

Archive: RCAHMS. Report: WoSAS

Funder: James Watson

Rebecca Shaw, Rebecca Shaw Archaeological Services, 2013

(Source: DES)