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Summary

Description

Early 18th or 17th Century; later alterations. Symmetrical 2-storey, 3-bay house (single storey cottage originally). Cream harling. Painted surrounds to openings.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: central panelled door; 2-pane fanlight; flanking windows. 3 1st floor windows centred above.

W ELEVATION: Narrow curtain wall to S between this house and adjacent 8 Halketshall. Rubble gable wall. Pitch of former single storey cottage wallhead is visible and slightly advanced.

N ELEVATION: Rubble elevation, developed in 2 stages. Lower, slightly advanced ground floor (former single storey cottage elevation); later 1st floor level above. Later stone steps advanced at 1st floor to meet high ground level to N. Later tile-hung covering to steps; door to N; window to E. Advanced 1st floor section to right of steps; modern rooflights.

E ELEVATION: plain gable; narrow single storey, monopitch shed attached to E gable; timber boarded door.

Centrally hung tilting 12-pane timber replacement windows. Pitched roof; grey slate laid in diminishing courses; raised skews; W gable apex stack; stack stump to E. Concrete pantiles to shed.

INTERIOR: Interior modernised in 1973. Entrance door opens directly onto flight of steps. 2 rooms to ground floor; 2 above. Door inserted at 1st floor centre rear for access to external (now covered) steps, revealing great thickness of external wall. Collar rafter roof; metal and wooden pins; bark remains of some roof timbers.

Statement of Special Interest

Later alterations to upper level fenestration. Halketshall is situated in a prominent position in Limekilns, lining the road to Charlestown and overlooking the Firth of Forth. Halketshall is named after the Halkets who lived at nearby Pitfirrane Castle and who, in the 17th century acquired a large part of Limekilns. The house later became part of the Broomhall Estate and accommodated estate staff. The house has been built very closely to the cliff face to the N, the rear stone steps bridge the gap between the house and the rockface. Permission from the Earls of Elgin was granted to people to cut the stone from the rockface to use for building. The cliff is cut away at about roof level which provides space for a patio and garden. A pantiled wash-house to the rear retains its copper boiler and tiled floor. When the house was inspected (2001), some pantiles were found on the attic floor, suggesting that the roof was once clad in pantiles. A photograph from circa 1900 shows a slated roof with a higher roofline that the adjacent (now taller) No 8. There is some variation in the slate to the rear which which may also indicate further changes in the building's development. Many buildings along Halketshall were inns or shops with accommodation for the family above and a number of these buildings probably began as single storey cottages and were later expanded as is still evident here at No 7.

References

Bibliography

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