Stables, Home Farm, Kailzie House, Traquair, Scottish Borders

Description

1803 with 1827 extensions and improvements. 1?-storey, 3-bay L-plan farmhouse with central piend-roof canted bay to principal elevation, rear wing and later single storey extension. 1?-storey, L-plan stables range to rear (W) and separate multi-gabled block comprising byres, pig sties, dairy, saw and threshing mill buildings (retaining water wheel and much internal machinery) to north. All whin rubble with squared whinstone or ashlar dressings. Built round cobbled court.

FARMHOUSE:

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 1?-storey, regularly fenestrated elevation with projecting canted bay window to centre (lying pane windows with whinstone margins and lintel and projecting gothic rectangular hoodmoulds) and similarly styled single windows to flanks. To ?-storey, piended roof of bay window with central roof light; to flanks, pitched timber dormers (with slated cheeks, exposed verge rafters and decorative bargeboards) aligned with outer bays. Blocking eaves course. Pair of ridge stacks at cross walls.

NW ELEVATION: end wall, boarded timber entrance door to right with narrow letter-box fanlight and projecting rectangular hoodmould surmounting (inset stone dated 1827).

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: advanced section to left with window with plain margins; much later small flat-roofed square-plan extension in re-entrant angle with similarly styled window to centre.

STABLES: multi-bayed, 1?-storey, L-plan stable range (forming U-plan courtyard range with farmhouse to NE) with little fenestration to ground floor but stone wallhead dormers (added at time of wallhead alteration) to main block; arm advances NW with door near re-entrant angle and pair of segmental-headed cart arches with dormer window to ?-storey (aligned with pier).

SAW AND THRESHING MILL, BYRES AND STIES: irregular L-plan complex comprising:

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical mill to right with small segmental-headed window to centre of ground floor flanked by segmental-headed doorways (each containing later 2-part timber barn doors); to 1st floor, loft section raised several courses with central gabletted door with 2-leaf timber boarded door breaking eaves (droved long and short quoins and blind oculus to gablehead); to flanks, similarly treated small square half-shuttered windows close to eaves; 2 irregularly placed roof-lights to attic. To left return, gabled end with centrally placed segmental-headed window to ground and 1st floors. Adjoining to ground floor left, single storey and attic farm building with 3 segmental-headed cart arches to ground floor (outer arches now bricked-up, 2-leaf timber doors to central arch); pair of roof lights to attic with full length ventilator near roofline.

NW ELEVATION): to left, gable end with segmental-headed to centre of ground floor with window above to ? storey (outlines of adjoining pitched roof buildings, now lost, still visible). To right, side wall of older mill extension with door to left.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: rear of mill and byre with advanced wide low gabled end of older mill extension to left with altered cart entrance to centre of ground floor and door to right (evidence of further adjoining structure in this area); to centre of 1st floor arched gothic window with some timbers surviving. To right, advanced end of farm building with stable door to left and ventilation slit to right. Advanced lean-to sties to extreme right (see below).

SE ELEVATION: near blind wall divided into 3 equal byres (formerly offices) by virtue of piended roofs, entrance door to extreme left of central dairy section, left section blind and right section forming left return of mill building (see NE ELEVATION). To NW (REAR) ELEVATION, central section extends (by swept catslide style lean-to) into 4 pigsties, outer wall now missing.

12 lying-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to principal elevation of farmhouse (4-pane window to rear extension with 2-pane opening top hopper); 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to stables; 2-pane cast-iron Carron lights to roof. 6-pane glazing in timber upper sashes with ventilators to lower sashes in hayloft windows; most other original glazing plans to other buildings now missing. Pitched, piended and lean-to slate roofs with replacement metal ridging (to farmhouse and most buildings). Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Droved coursed ashlar ridge and gablehead stacks with projecting neck copes and plain cans to farm buildings and taller (some replacement) ventilator cans to farmhouse.

INTERIOR: farmhouse and stables modernised and in use as residential accommodation; farm buildings retain original character and use. Some machinery surviving in sawmill timber and cast-iron gearings and drives and circular saw blade, saw bench (not original) extending into gabled N section, together with an overshot timber water wheel).

Statement of Interest

This farm and courtyard is part of the wider surviving landscape features from Kailzie House, demolished in 1958. Kailzie was built in 1803 for Robert Nutter Campbell, a Glasgow merchant. It was described as a "very elegant 2-storey and basement mansion of moderate size with a bowed garden front". All that remains of the house is a small building (listed separately) that was formerly part of the courtyard buildings and a pond now marks the spot of the main house. The stables, lodges and walled garden are listed separately. This is the former home farm for the Kailzie Estate. The farm is situated on the SW side of the B7062 and aligned with a now disused entrance to the estate. It was built at the same time as the Campbell mansion. The front elevation of the farmhouse is stylistically similar to the miller's house at Scots Mill (sited nearer to Peebles on the same road and also linked to Kailzie Estate and listed separately) as well as some outhouses remaining on the Kailzie Estate. The farm was part of a group of associated buildings sited just outside the inner policies of the estate. There were also kennels, a schoolhouse and a pheasantry; all of which have now disappeared or been changed into residential accommodation. The farm is a good example of how a smaller farm grows and adapts to circumstance. There was a large mill dam sited to the west of the farm buildings, which was used to run the threshing and saw mills, of which much machinery remains. The large byre had a central dairy and the rear extended out into pigsties. A separate L-plan stable block sat to the rear of the farmhouse and this was heightened to form an extra level of accommodation above. The farmhouse itself under went remodelling in 1827 when it was gothicised and a date stone added above the SW entrance door. Listed as a good example of an unusual Borders farmhouse with a good range of surviving outbuildings.

External Links

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