Balthayock, Westwood Cottage

NO 17038 23009 Circa 1825-30 cottage with later addition to the west, listed as being a ‘large thatched 2-storey cottage ornee’. The cottage is now a ruin and no thatch remains. The site is heavily overgrown so the exact condition of the building could not be determined, however, the owner of a property nearby confirmed that the roof was destroyed in a fire. The roofless condition of the building can be confirmed on web-based satellite imagery. The listed building description for the building should be updated accordingly.

Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 15 August 2014, survey no.171

NO 17037 23009 A historic building record was produced of Westwood Cottage, Balthayock, in advance of its demolition and replacement by single house. The recording was undertaken on 14 April 2021.

Westwood Cottage was a large thatched cottage on the Balthayock Estate, just E of Perth. It consisted of a ground floor and attic, built mainly of whinstone rubble with sandstone dressings, faced with cement harling, and stood on a naturally prominent rocky outcrop. As well as the thatched roof, it had many notable architectural features, including round-arched dormers and apsidal-ended ranges, resulting in cylindrically curved glazing, and window arches curved in two axes above the apsidal ends.

The whinstone rubble, especially where exposed in internal walls, consisted of unusually small and angular whinstone, bedded in an unusually generous matrix of lime mortar. Now that the mortar is exposed and weathering away, this has made the remains of the building even more unstable than they might otherwise be.

In 1998, the building was destroyed by fire, leaving only a shell, filled with collapsed masonry, charred timber and, with the passage of the years, abundant self-seeded saplings and other vegetation. It was much too unstable to enter, but even from the outside it was possible to record the many sophisticated details of design and craftsmanship which made this such an ambitious building for its size, and had justified its B listing (withdrawn on 09 March 2018 on account of its ruinous state). Westwood Cottage was an intriguing Scottish example of the Cottage Orné.

Archive: NRHE (intended) Funder: Private individual

David Bowler – Alder Archaeology

(Source: DES Vol 22)

OASIS ID: alderarc1-421619