Steading, Caberston, Peebles Road, Walkerburn, Innerleithen, Scottish Borders

Description

James Brown (wright, Innerleithen), 1850. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay rectangular-plan classical farmhouse with entrance portico and similar style rear wing, set on terraced site overlooking single storey, U-plan steading (stables) with 2-storey, multi-bayed, segmental-arched vernacular cart shed and store enclosing courtyard to S. Coursed whinstone farmhouse with tabbed sandstone quoins. Coursed whinstone rubble cart shed with rough whinstone quoins and voussoirs and polished sills and lintels.

FARMHOUSE:

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: panelled timber door; projecting architraved doorcase with canopy and pediment supported by pilasters on blocking course (all painted white); window flanking. 3 regularly placed bays with projecting sills and margins and tabbed quoins to 1st floor; pair of roof lights to attic.

N ELEVATION: main house to right with central wallhead stack and single bay to left of each floor; to left, rear wing with central single bay to each floor and additional lower extension adjoining to left return.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: not seen, 2002.

S ELEVATION: to left, similar to right of N elevation with wallhead stack and regularly placed bays; to right, rear wing slightly recessed.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Piended grey slate roof with lead ridging and regularly placed 2-pane cast-iron Carron lights to main elevation of attic. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Tall, coursed whinstone wallhead stacks with ashlar quoins to N and S elevations with thin ashlar neck copes and paired plain cans.

STEADING: N RANGE: single storey, U-plan range to N of courtyard (arms to E and W extending S with blind ends) with majority of original openings with modern in-fill (windows and doors). Pair of semi-circular coursed whinstone gatepiers (one adjoining W arm of N range, the other adjoining the NW angle of the S range) with later painted metal gates enclosing (now) tarmaced courtyard, repeated to opening at E end.

S RANGE: 2-storey, multi-bayed rectangular-plan cart shed and store comprising:

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to extreme left, blind wall with rectangular hayloft entrance to upper floor; to centre left, paired doors and window with painted surrounds, rectangular hayloft door to 1st floor (aligned with central bay) with smaller window to right. To centre right, 4 segmental-headed open cart arches on whinstone piers with loft window aligned with outer piers. To right, mostly blind wall with loft window to upper left.

W ELEVATION: central segmental-head cart arch now in-filled with central semi-glazed panelled door, tongue and groove to flanks with 4-pane glazing to upper portions; gatepier adjoining to left angle. Upper storey blind.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: mostly blind with ventilation slits to left of upper level; to right, lean-to extension of similar height to main structure and smaller lean-to in left re-entrant angle with door in left return.

E ELEVATION: not seen, 2002.

Modern glazing to refurbished N range with leaded glazing of diamond quarry to upper level of S range. Piended slate roof to all with lead ridging. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIORS: not seen, 2002 but farmhouse in use as residential accommodation and steading in use as stables and stores (S range) and offices (N range).

Statement of Interest

Although sited in the middle of Walkerburn, Caberston Farmhouse and steading were originally all that was to be found here in the early 1850s. Until then, the road passed through the lands of Purves Hill and Caberstone (which had been the property of the Stewarts of Traquair) and gave their name to one of the titles of dignity conferred upon Sir John Stewart in 1633 when he elevated to the peerage as "Earl of Traquair, Lord Linton and Caberstone". The farmhouse is sited high upon a terrace overlooking the steading (sited to the south and adjacent to the Walker Burn). They each have separate entrances with the farmhouse being accessed from a drive, west along the Peebles Road and the steading opening directly onto the same road. Through the courtyard, there is a track following the burn and leading to the fields on Kirnie Law (to the left) and eventually the ruined farmstead of Priesthope. Cairn Hill rises to the right of the Walker Burn and was originally called Caberston Craigs before the village grew up and took the name of the burn (originally waulk, after a waulk-mill believed to have been sited here). There were also 4 cottages (associated with the 1850's farm) and occupied by the farm workers, but these are no longer visible due to the housing that grew up to service the mill workers. The farmhouse provided a home to the Meek family (related to the Croil family) in the later part of the 19th century. John Meek (b1847) and his wife Gedeon married in 1871 and had 4 children here, John Croil Meek, Elizabeth Annie, Emily Nora and Ethel Scott. Both John and Gedeon died in Caberston, on 17th January 1881 and 14th November 1880 respectively. The farmhouse and steading are still in use as part of a working farm and form an important focal point in the village. Listed as a good example of a classical farmhouse and vernacular steading by a local wright, James Brown of Innerleithen.

External Links

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