The Steading

When we bought the place it was originally up in two lots, the house with two acres of land and, the steading and bothy, also with two acres. Ordinarily the steading would have been bought by a developer and turned into 3 or maybe 4 houses. We were greedy and we wanted the whole lot, partially because we wanted space for animals etc and partially because we didn't want neighbours living on top of us. Living in town with neighbours is fine, but it seems just a bit weird to be out in the middle of nowhere with several other families living on top of you. So we bid on and where lucky enough to get the whole lot.

Our first job was to secure the steading which was in a pretty sorry state. The plan was to clean the junk out, remove the cattle court and recent structures, replace the roof including new trusses, repoint all the stonework and fit new windows and doors. The new roof  is corrugated iron, primarily because it was a lot cheaper than slate however the trusses are designed to support slates in the future and the slates that could be salvaged were.

The work was carried out over a  four month period from September to December 2011. I was lucky enough to be off work in that period and spent a fair bit of time down there. It was a bigger job than we had anticipated and once it was finished we are amazed at how much space there is. The guys did an excellent job and the place looks so much better already. Since its been finished I have already started filling it with shelving for storage. Workshop next.

There is a timelapse video here of the roof going on. Photos below show some before and after.

Before

Roof hanging off the west wing 

South wing, note the asbestos roof and the state of the walls

Pig pen, complete with tree and the cattle court from the east 

Cattle court 

North wing of steading, nice brick arches but no roof.

After the clean out 

West wing 

Some serious work required on the wall heads 

Cattle court gone 

Those brick arches look somewhat precarious

Rebuilding 

Look out the bosses are on site 

Doorway in west wind looking more secure 

Rebuilt wall head at the end of the north wing

Rebuilding the gable on the north wing 

Starting to look like a proper set of buildings with the trusses on 

Inside the north wing

Looking good

Finished result

New roof in corrugated iron. Looks water tight to me

Looks a lot better now

The south wing with new gable and doors

Those brick arches look a lot better now

Back Story

You can find the back story to Cowieswells at my other blog 

Inlcuding
Buying the place 
First Impressions 
and an update once we started on the steading in December 2011

Welcome

Cowieswells is a farm house and steading (traditional stone barn) in the village of Crawton near Stonehaven. The farm sits 500 m from the cliff top and commands impressive views eastward over the North Sea. The place had been seriously neglected by the former owner who had done nothing to it for 40 years. The roof was missing on the east and north sections of the steading and hanging off the west wing. The centre of the steading was an asbestos cattle barn. The entire place was literally and figuratively full of shit,


The house was boarded up and very run down inside. Plaster was hanging off the walls, it was damp and the electric was the old round pin plugs from the 1960's. The kitchen and bathroom were extremely squalid. This was a property in need of a lot of attention, which is exactly what we plan to do over the next two years.

This blog will track the project.

 View of house and steading from the road 

 Steading and cattle court from the sea 

Roof hanging off the north part of the steading