For several years during the 1970's and 80's The Old Schoolhouse was our home. We bought it from the Whitelaw estate. At that time it the widow of the old gamekeeper was living in it. I understand it had been the tied house of the gamekeepers since its use as a school.
The house and school were one building but each had separate entrances front and back, a wall dividing the two. The gamekeepers had lived in the residential side of the house and the enormous school room was used only for storage. We created an internal door between the two, added electricity and it became our living area and art studio. The internal door opened into the children's cloakroom, tall and narrow with dozens of stags heads hanging above the coat hooks.
The schoolroom itself was a magnificent room, 30 feet long and a 15ft high ceiling. Windows on three walls were almost as tall and had the beautiful blown glass that refracted the outside woodland beautifully, working wooden shutters folded to the side of them. The original wood stove was there (which we donated to either Glasgow Green or a local museum. The wooden stage where the schoolmaster's desk sat was still there and used by our own daughter to dance on. At the back was another porch and toilet with a back door that led outside. A few yards away beautiful stone steps led up into a native bluebell wood oak, elm hazel and beech.
Within the woods was a little quarry where the whinstone to build the house had been excavated and over the years it had been used to deposit the years of rubbish from all the occupants. There was no rubbish collection in those days. The stepped walls of the quarry were covered with native trees and bluebells and with the help of the neighbouring farmer we cleared it to reveal a beautiful dell. It's possible we may have handled things from your grand mother's time. There were many broken things, and some whole, I still have a little lustre glass vase I found there.
The residential house had two downstairs rooms, a kitchen and bathroom and front and back hallway. The front hall was charming, the floor was stone flagged and the first step of the stairway was also stone, the rail was an ornamental cast iron which had been painted. (We took it back to it's original state). The stairway curved around with a skylight above, and there were two bedrooms upstairs. The smallest had a skylight which was lovely on clear nights, I imagine a child or maid's room?
I do have a few photos and also some aerial pics but it would be easiest to contact directly through e mail or fb as I'm unsure of how to use this site. My e mail is
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