Kirkhill Farm Survey, Stirk Hoose

NS 55683 55861(centred) The upstanding buildings of Kirkhill Farm were the subject of a photographic and tape off-set survey during the summer of 2021. Blaeu’s Map of c1654, based on Pont’s Map of (c1596), shows Kirkhill. The buildings of Kirkhill Farm are seen within a fermtoun at East Kirkhill on John Thomson’s Atlas of 1832 and John Ainslie’s Map of the County of Renfrewshire (1796). Kirkhill Farm on the 1st Edition OS map of 1856 is an L-shape building. The layout of the main buildings of Kirkhill Farm have changed little over the years although the buildings were later extended to the E, W and N in the 19th century.

The main farm building comprises the farmhouse and large byre, the byre is joined to the farmhouse on its W side. The milk house/dairy seen to the N on the building’s W side was built later (probably around 1900). The farm has been in the ownership of the present occupants since 1949, who are of the opinion that the present staircase and hall were constructed in the 1920s along with the stain glass windows to the N of the building.

The W arm joining the farmhouse originally contained the washhouse, a byre, stable and cart shed. Much evidence of their use is still seen internally.

NS 55678 55644 (centred) W of the farmhouse a group of buildings comprise the potato shed, hay shed and meal house. The S section is a corrugated building (known in the 1950s as the potato shed). Centrally, facing E, is the hay shed built in 1903, with an opening in its E aspect. Various flagstones of differing sizes bearing the word “Blochairn” and narrower Blochairn glazed fireclay reclaimed tiles are embedded in the flooring. Five timber posts secured by metal shoes on concrete pads at ground level are seen supporting the roof on either side of the hay shed. They comprise two lengths of timber joined by a V-shaped diagonal joint and a brace and shoe. A meal house built on two levels and constructed of brick and wood is part of the structure of the NE end of the hayshed.

To the W and attached to the back of the above buildings is the

stirk house at NS 55678 55844. This is built of reinforced concrete with three entrances and four upper arched openings above. Internally are a single and four double stalls with biss stones, at the N end of the building. Glazed fireclay feeding troughs and tethering brackets are seen in these stalls. Several of the fireclay troughs are stamped “HURLFORD by Kilmarnock”. The stirk house was for housing young bullocks.

An outside brick toilet with a concrete roof at NS 55653 5584631 lies across a narrow passage to the W side of the large byre. A wooden door has been inserted with a window.

NS 55658 55851 The midden, to the W of the farmhouse and toilet, and N of the meal house, is surrounded on its N and S sides by a stone dyke built of random stonework measuring 1.5m high with coping stones 280mm thick on top.

NS 55657 55847 A pump manufactured by William Dickie and Sons of East Kilbride sits on an aggregated concrete base. There is a septic tank beneath a hatch. The pump is 2.53m high. A large wheel seen on the NE aspect is 0.72m in diameter. A chute comes from the right side of the main apparatus, which may have poured water into the midden. Given its site and its size, its purpose was probably to pump liquid manure from the septic tank into which the midden drained. This would have been pumped into a special wagon and then taken out and spread on the fields as required.

NS 55656 5582 is an aggregated stone base where the hen house once stood.

NS 55629 55814 A fireclay water pipe stands on top of the well shown on the early OS maps. The pipe is stamped BOURTREEHILL of Dreghorn, Kilmarnock.

NS 55662 55815 The concrete foundations of an old piggery are seen on the W side of the existing piggery buildings measuring 10 x 2.45m. To the E is the extant brick-built piggery at NS 55658 55832 grid taken centrally between the separate piggeries. These were surveyed and photographed. The E side of the piggery measures 25.2m (W side 25.4m) and is 3.05m high at its S end. The piggeries comprise compartments to the N and S for the sows and their piglets. Between the compartments small longitudinal compartments divided on opposing sides of a passage running from E to W of the building are seen. Within these small compartments are holes built at ground level allowing the piglets to enter the small compartments unhindered to feed at narrow troughs built into the inner sides of the enclosures. Two separate piggeries are seen, most of the N one is composed of reinforced concrete walling although internally the features are built of brick. Two entrances run through and between the separate piggeries to the paddock in the W.

By the mid 1960s Kirkhill Farm had ceased to be a working farm.

A track 5.7m wide runs between Kirkhill Farm and Kirkhill House from Kirkhill Road at NS 55672 55880 to Broom Road East at NS 55530 55825, opposite Kirkhillgait. The area of the track that is in use today is shown tree-lined on the 1896 OS map and as a track on the 1913 map. A stone wall constructed of rubble with coping stones is seen bounding the policies of Kirkhill House rising to 1.8m in height. Entrance features were recorded within the walling leading into Kirkhill House grounds; first a blocked up opening at NS 55617 55838, then a second opening with an internal wooden door at NS 55588 55865. At NS 55580 55860 is a single sandstone pillar.

NS 55680 55895 to NS 55760 55906 An area locally known as the Thicket was traced from the eastern section of Kirkhill Road at to the E perimeter. During the third site visit in early May 2021, evidence of the buildings and features were mostly obscured by vegetation although some turf banks were seen. The fermtoun appears on the 1st and 2nd Edition OS map and is part of East Kirkhill fermtoun. The maps show an enclosure and three buildings on the N side of the track. When the 1896 and 1911 editions were published, only the westernmost steading is in use. By the time of the 1939 map, each of the steadings has been demolished with only evidence of the access track remaining. A turf bank was noted where the W steading would have been. The boundary wall on the S side of the site and a two-metre width of track running alongside could be seen. The wall is constructed of stone, 0.30m wide, and 0.45m high. Grid references were taken along the course of the wall at points where it changes direction at NS 55680 55895; NS 55690 55901; NS 55693 55917; NS 55772

55912 and NS 55760 55906. Dressed masonry, possibly remnants

of a building was seen at NS 55742 55924.

NS 55722 55790 Vermont Cottage, on the S side of Kirkhill Road (originally a pre-improved road now used as a footpath) was subject to a building and photographic survey. The Cottage was originally built in 1931.

The building has, to the front and SE facing, two bay windows with entrance between. To the SE an extension to the building appears to have been butted onto the main building. The rear and NE side of the building has the original doorway and window openings extant.

Susan Hunter, Kenneth Mallard and Janie Munro – Association of Certificated Field Archaeologists

(Source: DES Vol 22)