i. General

This cottage lies a little bit further to the east/south-east of Glen Fyne Lodge, on the opposite (south) side of the road. It was originally a small estate cottage of single storey and three bay plan with its principal frontage facing the road to the north and its back to the River Fyne to the south. It has a double-pitched, slated roof, and a single chimney remaining to the west. The building has been substantially extended by the addition of a porch to the main entrance, a further bay to the west, and a large lean-to extension to the north.

ii. Exterior

The north frontage was of tripartite arrangement, with a central entrance and window on either side. Of the latter the eastern window still survives though it has been reduced by the raising of the sill, and a modern window has been put in; the original sill stone can still be seen. The western window was substantially widened, particularly on its western side; the original sill stone is still visible below. The quoinings, dressings of the surviving window are all of roughly hewn stone.

The surviving pointing detail of the frontage is fairly flush pointing with horizontal ruling-out. The east gable wall is rendered. A projecting wall footing course can be seen. Only part of the original rear elevation is exposed at the E end; this has a similar pointing detail as on the north. Within this short wall section survives an original window opening; again this contains a modern window. The opening itself was previously a little bit longer, the sill having subsequently been raised.

The lean-to extension to the rear is flat roofed, almost as deep as the cottage itself and of relatively recent, mid- 20th century, date. This is harled and painted white but appears to be of cement block-work construction. There is a small window at the north side of its east wall and three small windows, equally spaced, facing the river to the south. The sills of these windows are formed of terracotta tiles. There is a similar smaller window at the north side of the west elevation. The west wall of the rear extension also contains what has clearly been an entrance, off-set to the S. This is now blocked but the step to the entrance still visible externally.

The westward extension of the original cottage appears to be earlier than the rear lean-to but obviously secondary to the cottage itself. The westwards extension is also harled over and painted white; the apex to the gable contains no chimney. This seems simply to have been the addition of a further room. In the west gable there are two windows, both modern. The extension to the main cottage was to add a kitchen to the pre-existing building. In the north elevation there is a further window. All of these kitchen windows externally have tiled sills. The windows within are more recent than that - 2009.

The porch added to the centre of the north side of the original cottage is simply built. The door facing west, varnished wood, glazed panel above, framed. The porch has a mono-pitch, felt-tiled roof and there is a small window in the north side of the porch. Two granite steps up lead up to a modern door within the original front entrance, the interior of the porch is lined with hardboard.

iii. Interior

The cottage has been systematically modernised within and lined out with new plasterboard and partition linings, ceilings etc. The main entrance goes into a narrow hall and immediately to the west there is an entrance into the living room. All the main rooms have a simple cavetto cornice above, plain skirting?s and plain architraves with wraparound at the corners, and hardboard doors within.

In the west wall of the living room there had been a fireplace which has recently been removed and replaced with a cast iron wood-burning stove. The room has a broad picture window to the north. An entrance at the north end of the west wall leads into the secondary kitchen extension. This has a fitted kitchen, cavetto cornice, small loft hatch above, cork tiled floor. There is a small cupboard at the south-west angle, a little larder. The kitchen appears light and airy. There are scars on the wall, particularly on the west, which indicate that there had been a partition. This was taken out relatively recently. The kitchen had formerly only occupied the northern part of this area, the remainder to the south had apparently been a shed.

Towards the rear of the entrance hall is an entrance off to the east into the other principal room within the early range. A plain boarded door leads into the interior, this is a bedroom which includes a wall cupboard to the west with windows to the south, east and north. The room has simple detailing as we have described for the other ground floor rooms. Whether there had been a second fireplace as maybe likely in the east gable wall is no longer clear because of the renewal of the linings. At the north-west corner of the narrow hall area is a narrow linen cupboard, framed in.

At the south end of the hall there is a simple entrance into the rear extension. The latter is planned with an east/west axial passage that leads to three rooms, the first two off the south side of the passage and the final one to the west end of the passage. These are respectively a store room/study, a child?s bedroom and a bathroom. The bedroom has a fitted wall cupboard in the centre of its north side. The bathroom occupies the north-west angle of the rear range and the bedroom wraps around this and also occupies the north-east angle of the range at the point where there was an external entrance to the west. Clearly there has been some subsequent rearrangement of the internal plan. The interiors of the rear range are all of similar detail in their finishing with simple cavetto cornice, plain skirting?s and architraves. These details have a rounded angle. Windows have been renewed very recently, 2009, throughout the building.

Along the north frontage a path is formed of concrete slabs. There is a small garden patch corresponding to the width of the original cottage, this bounded by a holly hedge and some evidence of beds within. At the north-west angle of the hedge there is a mature rowan tree. The property is bounded by a small burn beyond its north perimeter. The field leads to a house. Historic pictures showing haymaking confirm that this was a rich meadowed area.

To the west of Stalker?s cottage there is a small garden compound at the confluence of the small burn and the River Fyne. The garden walls are of dry stone dyke construction using rounded river cobbles and fieldstone with larger rounded copes.