Description
FARMHOUSE: 1863. 2-storey 3-bay L-plan farmhouse with 1-bay low wing to right. Squared and snecked tooled sandstone with bull-faced quoins, door and window dressings to S.
S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced single storey slated entrance porch with generously advanced gable to left. Bay to right with gabled dormer, single storey 1-bay wing to far right.
4-panel timber door to S, timber door to N. 8-pane timber sash and case windows (4-pane to N elevation dormer). Graded grey slates. Gable end stacks to W, E, N.
INTERIOR: not seen 2003
GATE PIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: 4 square gate piers with
corniced coping and large ball finials to E set astride inclined entrance steps. Sweeping rubble boundary wall to E with flat coping. Rubble boundary wall to S, W and N with semi-circular rubble coping. Entrance door at N.
STEADING: 1913, single and two storey square plan with courtyard steading. Loosely coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings. Curb-stones, fixed light windows with ventilation panels below, ventilation holes, piended roofs, half-slating and full slating, fleches and rooflights.
COURTYARD:
N ELEVATION: 2 storey cartshed with granary above, blocked (probably non-original) opening to left, 2 cart openings to right with slender cast iron column and lintel.
E ELEVATION: 2 storey cartshed
with granary above, 2 cart openings with slender cast iron column and lintel to left, single storey livestock wing to right.
W ELEVATION: single storey covered cattle court with external water trough (at S) to left, large hole in gable end to N, further recessed wing of single storey parallel cattle court to right forming courtyard.
EXTERNAL:
S ELEVATION: to left of courtyard entrance gable ends of 4 single storey covered cattle courts and livestock stalls (one altered to form 2 pig pens), to right of courtyard entrance single storey livestock wing.
N ELEVATION: 2 storey granary and cartshed wing with later corrugated iron additions to left and right.
Fixed 6-pane windows with sliding slatted opening below to granary and cartshed and courtyard elevation of wing to right on S elevation. Abundance of rooflights and fleches to livestock areas. Graded grey slates. Half-slating to inner 3 cattle courts. Tall stack at gable corner of right outer wing to S. High level round ventilation holes to W and E.
INTERIOR: Good interior with many timber hecks remaining. Some slender cast iron columns.
Wing to W: at S 4 wooden trevises with ball-finialled cast iron columns providing space for
4 pairs of cows. Each with a pair of fireclay feeding troughs, self-filling water drinkers, and iron binding fixture. Timber heck. Drainage channel. Further stalls to N with concrete additions to form calf/pig pens.
COTTAGES: No 1 cottage: Circa 1863, single storey 3-bay farm cottage. Rubble with brick porch. Later additions to N and W. Predominantly timber sash and case 4-pane windows with horns. Gable stacks to W and E. Nos 2 and 3 cottages: Circa 1913, single storey, now 8-bay attached pair of farm cottages, No 2 with porch. Squared and snecked sandstone. No 3 cottage altered at E. Predominantly timber sash and case windows with horns and a variety of glazing panes. 2 original fireplaces to No 2 cottage. Delapidated pig sty and lavatory to N of Cottages 2 and 3.
Statement of Special Interest
An interesting group of farm buildings. The farmhouse is a good mid-Victorian example which largely retains its original external appearance and is evidence of a period of prosperity in British farming. Whitehill is clearly marked on John Ainslie's map of 1775. It was most likely built for, and always owned by, the occupants of nearby Wemyss Hall, which was built in the late 1690s, but substantially remodelled in 1906 by Sir Robert Lorimer and re-named Hill of Tarvit. Hill of Tarvit and Whitehill remain in one ownership, currently the National Trust for Scotland.
The steading is now largely redundant. It is a good, very late traditional steading which due to its late date of construction was able to fully adopt the accepted ideas on ventilation to aid animal health - hence the plethora of ventilation holes and fleches as well as the distinctive half-slating. Improved animal husbandry knowledge resulted in these covered cattle courts to protect livestock from the worst of the weather. The present steading replaced a range of agricultural buildings which are shown on the 1852-5 Ordnance Survey map.
The cottages span the two periods of building, with the later pair largely echoing the design of the earlier cottage.