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Summary

Description

Gallowhill is an early-19th century farm, with later alterations and additions. The site comprises a single-storey and attic, T-plan farmhouse with flanking wings and barns projecting at right angles to a rear enclosing courtyard. There are harled walls to the farmhouse with droved and polished painted ashlar dressings. The cow byre and north barn are constructed in random rubble with stugged sandstone dressings, raised margins and projecting window cills.

The principal (southeast) elevation of the farmhouse is three bays wide with a gabled wing projecting at the centre. A glazed, brick and timber porch projects at ground floor level to the right bay with a window centred in the gable above. There is a two-leaf, vertically-boarded timber entrance door in the re-entrant angle with a bipartite window to the left. A single-storey and attic, two-bay wing projects to the right and is slightly lower in height. There are harled, stone, slate-hung gabled dormer windows breaking the roof eaves in each bay of the farmhouse with corniced timber bargeboards and finials. The northwest (rear) elevation of the farmhouse is asymmetrical and four bays wide with a dormered bay at the outer left bay and a two-storey, gabled, harled brick projection to the right bay with a window at intermediate level to the outer right bay.

The single-storey, two-bay cow byre and single-storey and attic hayloft comprises an L-plan wing, constructed in random rubble stone, which adjoins the southwest end of the farmhouse. The cow byre is two bays wide with a sliding timber door at ground floor level. The hayloft and workshop is advanced and gabled with sliding, two-leaf doors at ground floor level and a vertically-boarded timber door and hoist in a stone gabled dormer breaking the roof eaves above. There is an infilled doorway at first floor level in the northwest gable. There is a dormered doorway, with a vertically-boarded timber door, breaking the roof eaves in the southwest elevation.

The dairy barn and bothy adjoins the northeast elevation of the farmhouse and is constructed in random rubble with part-whitewashed walls. The bothy section projects from the centre of the southwest elevation and has late-20^th century openings with flanking later additions and a lean-to addition to the end wall.

Gallowhill Farm has a mixture of window designs. In the farmhouse, these are predominantly 14-pane glazing patterns (horizontal 'lying panes') in timber sash and case frames. There are six-pane, horizontal, tilting timber windows to the cow byre. The roof is covered in grey slates, piended at the south corner of the cow byre. There are small rooflights and cast iron gutters and downpipes throughout.

At the time of listing in 1996, it was noted that there is a two-panel inner entrance door with an etched glass upper to the farmhouse, a wrought-iron range in the bothy, and an open timber stair and timber grain shute in the workshop/hayloft. The cow byre includes whitewashed interior walls, a concrete floor with griep, timber manger, horizontally-boarded trevises with timber tack hooks, slab dividers, piped water supply and troughs, hay hecks (racks) and a timber grain shute.

Boundary walls enclose the site at the southeast side of the farm. These have a ceramic cope made by John McKnight of Kilmarnock. A pair of squared and stugged ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps flank an iron gate.

Statement of Special Interest

The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1868-78 describes Gallowhill as a farmhouse and offices, the property of the Duke of Argyle [sic] (OS1/2/78/96). The 1^st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1866 shows an L-plan range of buildings, comprising a rectangular-plan farmhouse with a wing to the right and flanked by rectangular-plan farm buildings (including the cow byre and dairy barn). The 2^nd Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1898 shows a U-shaped, courtyard-plan farm, indicating the farm was extended and altered sometime between 1866 and 1898.

The 2^nd Edition map of 1898 shows that the front elevation of the farmhouse was extended to the southeast to form a T-shaped building and a brick and timber glazed porch was added to the gable end of this extension. A two-storey, gabled, harled brick projection was also added to the rear elevation of the farmhouse. Around this time, a single-storey and attic, L-plan hayloft and workshop was added to the southwest elevation of the cow byre and an L-plan range of sheds was added to the hayloft and workshop to form an enclosed rear courtyard. The L-plan shed range was removed from the gable of the hayloft sometime after 2013 (Argyll and Bute planning portal, reference number 13/02114/LIB). A horsemill was also attached to the southwest elevation of the hayloft and workshop building but was removed sometime before 1898.

Aerial photographs of the farm (taken in 1949 and 2022) show that the layout today largely resembles that which is shown on the 2^nd and later Edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1898, 1914 and 1966.

The buildings at Gallowhill Farm are a good surviving group of agricultural buildings with picturesque architectural detailing typical of estate architecture of the period. The courtyard plan form and decorative features such as painted timber bargeboards and finials and a 'lying pane' glazing pattern to the windows inform an early-19^th century date and an estate style that is seen reflected at the nearby Kilmichael Farm, West Skeroblingarry Farm, Aros Farm and, at one time, East Darlochan Farm. Horizontal 'lying pane' glazing patterns are now very rare and, as such, adds to the historic and architectural character of this group of buildings.

The appearance of Gallowhill Farm in its current form is that of a mid to late-19^th century group of farm buildings. While a farm has existed on the site since the early-19^th century, Gallowhill was expanded between 1866 and 1898, during the 'High Farming' era in Scotland (from around 1850 to 1914). The 'High Farming' era was characterised by increased industrialisation and commercialisation of farming methods and systems including, for example, the introduction of the threshing machine and the horse mill.

The layout and plan form of Gallowhill is similar to other farms that were once part of the tenanted farm holdings of the Duke of Argyll's estate in the 19^th century, such as the nearby Bleachfield, East Darlochan and Aros farms. While farms and farmhouses are not rare building types in Scotland, Gallowhill Farm is of interest as an early-19^th century farm that was altered and extended in the late-19^th century, and which continues in use as a working farm today.

Largely retaining its courtyard plan form, Gallowhill Farm is a well-detailed example of 19^th century estate farm architecture with a relative lack of later alteration to the exterior of the farmhouse and its flanking farm buildings. The farmhouse retains a number of good surviving decorative features, such as corniced bargeboards, finials and a lying-pane glazing pattern.

Listed building record revised in 2022.

References

Bibliography

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