Building record MHG48048 - Melbourne Cottage

NMRS Report: (20/07/2005)
ND34SW 183 32650 43925

This farmsteading is no longer inhabited and its two principal buildings, which are still roofed, are open to the cattle and sheep that graze the surrounding land. The farmstead comprises three buildings, two of which are ranges on the NW and NE sides respectively of a yard or garden enclosed by a low stone wall. The range on the NW (YARROWS04 675) contains a dwelling at its SW end and three other compartments, whilst the range on the NE (YARROWS04 676) contains a barn, and has a stable attached to its NW end an a horse engine-platform (YARROWS04 677) to the NE side. The third building (YARROWS04 674), which contains two compartments, is situated immediately NW of the NW range.
The dwelling in the NW range measures 12.4m from NE to SW by 5.75m transversely over stone walls 0.6m in thickness. There are a central entrance and flanking windows in the SE side, a central window in the NW side, and fireplaces at ground-floor level in both gables. The fireplace at the NE end of the dwelling is much wider than that at the SW end, and immediately SE of it is a cupboard recess. The layout of these features indicates a parlour at the SW end, a kitchen at the NE end, and a smaller room set between them on the NW side. Originally it would have had a thatch roof, but this has been replaced with corrugated asbestos sheets.
The kitchen is linked to a small compartment by a doorway at the NW end of the NE gable. This compartment has an external entrance in the centre of its NW side, a window and a small niche or ambry in the SE side, and a fireplace in the gable it shares with the kitchen. This compartment and its immediate neighbour to the NE are roofed with peat sods and rushes held in place by wire netting. The neighbouring compartment also has opposed entrances on the NW and SE, the latter blocked, and the NE end of the interior contains animal stall dividers. The roofless compartment at the NE end of the range also has an external entrance in the NW side, and what was probably a privy is attached to the SE side.
The range on the NE side of the yard mainly comprises a barn, which measures 12.6m from NW to SE by 5.3m transversely over walls 0.6m thick. There are single entrances in the NE and SW sides, but they are not opposed, and a comparatively modern wide doorway has been inserted into the SE gable. A small aperture in the NE wall provided access for a drive-shaft from the horse-engine platform. Grass-grown, the platform measures 10m in diameter and 0.5m in height over a low, drystone revetment wall. The central gear-pit is now no more than a grassy hollow. A stable, which is still in use as a store, is attached to the NW end of the barn. Narrower than the barn, it is possibly a later addition. It has a doorway in its NW end and the SW half of the interior contains three stalls, separated by wooden dividers.
The third building measures about 6.3m from NNE to SSW by 3.8m transversely within ruined walls 0.6m in thickness and up to 2.2m in height. The two compartments appear to have had entrances on the ESE, and what appear to be nesting boxes are built into the SSW side of the partition wall, suggesting that part of the building was a hen-house.
In the Ordnance Survey Name Book (Caithness No. 13, p.246) Melbourne Cottage is referred to as `a small farm steading in the occupation of A & G Donaldson & the property of Captain Bentley Innes. Thrumster House'. At this time only the NW range is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1876, sheet xxix). The NE range was added before 1907, when it is shown on the 2nd edition of the map (1907, sheet xxix), but neither map shows the third building or the horse-engine platform.
(YARROWS04 674-7)
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 1 July 2004