Monument record MHG48054 - Farmstead, Borrowston Croft

NMRS Report: (20/07/2005)
ND34SW 189 32913 44045 & 32933 44046

This farmstead, which lies immediately W of the A99(T) public road about 250m NE of Melbourne Cottage farmsteading (ND34SW 183), comprises a cottage (YARROWS04 678) and a range (YARROWS04 631). The cottage is aligned NE and SW and faces onto the road, while the range is set at right-angles to it immediately to the SW. The one-storey cottage, which is still roofed, has a central entrance and flanking windows in its SE side and a blocked central window in its NW side. There is a fireplace in each of the gables and towards the SW end of the NW side there is a doorway into an outshot. Set against the NW wall in the NE part of the interior of the cottage are several animal stalls separated with large stone slabs set on edge. The outshot contains a blocked fireplace and a cupboard recess in its NW end, a small window in its NE side, what is probably a cheese-press in its E corner, and a wide entrance in its SW side. Adjacent to the NE end of the cottage is a relatively recent timber shed. Of the range, only the N and E corners and 22.7m of the NE side survive. A doorway, at least two windows and two cruck-slots are visible in the surviving length of wall.
The present disposition of the buildings reflects the layout of the farmstead depicted on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1876, sheet xxix; 1907, sheet xxix). However, nothing is now visible of the small roofed structure shown immediately SW of the NW end of the range on the earlier map. It was probably removed in the late 19th century and is not shown on the later map.
(YARROWS04 631, 678)
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 11 August 2004 <1><2>

Photographs of this crofthouse were submitted to the HER in September 2009 to comply with a condition on planning consent for a new house. The existing buildings on the site are to be demolished. A letter accompanying the photographs states that the building was completely gutted internally a long time ago, with no floors, ceilings or partition walls. There some evidence that the building was used in the more recent past as a byre and implement storage shed. The date of the timber extension, built of vertical railway sleepers, is not known. It is also not known at when the original Caithness flag roof was replaced by the current cement fibre sheeting. <3>

A feature with the appearance of a horse wheel is depicted on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map c.1906. <4>