Kirkhope Steading

Commercial, Community, Residential

LOCATION: Ettrickbridge

CLIENT: Ettrick & Yarrow Community Development Company

Kirkhope is a cornmill conversion. CSY are proud to have worked alongside Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company to bring this vision to life. A vision established to unite the rural communities of the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys while also supporting economic and social development within the area. These are a few ideas which contributed to the final design of the project. The site is now complete with 3 residential units, 7 commercial units with office spaces and 1 new-build semi-detached house.

The Vision

Located at the head of the remote Ettrick Valley, Kirkhope Steading is a former Victorian corn mill that was purchased in 2021 by the Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company. The organisation seeks to support the economic and social development of the local community through addressing demographic and land-use issues such as housing and essential services to ensure the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys are sustainable places to live and work.

CSY were approached by the Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company to sensitively repair and adapt the derelict mill buildings into homes and workshops. The existing structures, formed in an ad-hoc courtyard arrangement, were typical of traditional, vernacular construction, being comprised of solid, stone walls and hipped slate roofs, and were essential to the aesthetic and historic significance of the upper Ettrick valley.

The Solution

The team at CSY set out to repair and retain the existing historic fabric through the principle of ‘conservation through use’, working closely with local authority conservation officers to retain the clustered, agrarian layout and work with the existing structure to produce a series of dwellings and workshops that benefitted from enhanced landscaping to communal courtyards that encouraged social interaction. Approval was successfully negotiated to erect two new-build dwellings by adopting an aesthetic that, whilst contemporary, remained deferential to the adjacent historic elements.

A breathable envelope of wood-fibre insulation encases the existing structure, drastically improving the thermal performance of the dwellings whilst allowing moisture to pass freely through the construction. New, high performance double-glazed windows and doors allow a passive ventilation strategy with junctions between construction elements carefully considered and detailed to deliver air tightness. Renewable technologies enforce the low carbon-based approach to the design, with dwellings and commercial units heated using ground source heat pumps and underfloor heating with combined hot water cylinders and buffer tanks. In-roof photovoltaic panels, carefully detailed to sit flush with the slate roofs, are fitted to pitches facing away from the road-side approach.

The Conclusion

Successfully completed in 2022 using locally sourced materials and labour, Kirkhope Steading is a timely reminder of how looking to the past can assist in creating a sustainable future for rural communities.

The passion and commitment of the Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company has delivered a project which respects the significance of the existing, historic structures and enables them to meet contemporary standards for family living and working within the Ettrick Valley community.