The Glen: Piggery, The Glen Policies

Single storey and attic, 3-bay, rectangular-plan, picturesque pavilion-style pigsty with dovecote tower; set into hillside site. Random and coursed whinstone rubble with yellow sandstone ashlar quoins and dressings; polished yellow sandstone ashlar quoins and moulded corbel to tower. Timber bracketed roof with gable to wings. Sited overlooking the main steading and just behind the workers cottages. Due to its high position, it is handled in a picturesque manner to be viewed as an eye catcher, not only as a functioning building. The pigs were important animals. They provided pork, ham, bacon and sausage. The trotters and heads could be boiled and made into brawn. The fat would have been reduced and made into lard. This would have supplemented the meat from the sheep and the cows (who also supplied the dairy produce). The vegetables would have been from the kitchen garden and together they would provide a varied and nutritious diet. The actual structure of the piggery is noted long before its present form. Originally, there was a U-plan building with an open end where the dovecote entrance is. The back and outer walls appear not to have moved but been extended forward and in-filled (some time between 1860 and 1880) to form what we see today. The tower dovecote is of a much higher status than the building that it surmounts. The rest of the piggery follows the estate vernacular but the tower and entrance have high quality sandstone ashlar quoins and an impressive moulded corbel. The timber dovecote follows the estate norm with timber-bracketed eaves (and all woodwork painted green). It could be that the tower was an after thought, or added during a later phase of improvements to the estate (it is known Bryce carried out more work in 1874, and this could have been added then). Being inset into the hillside, the interior passage floor is on a slight incline facilitating drainage and for mucking out purposes. The estate functioned like a community until the 1920s. Listed as a good example of a piggery within an intact later 19th century estate (Historic Scotland)

April 1996: External inspection reveals the piggery to be vacant and derelict, although Glen House and its grounds are very well-maintained. January 2000: No change reported. August 2001: The Cockburn Conservation Trust's survey of Buildings at Risk within the Borders reports that the piggery is currently in use as an agricultural store. Although the owner is against selling, she may consider a restoring lease. August 2003: The piggery is B-listed, though it forms an A-listed group with the other estate buildings.

September 2009: External inspection reveals that the condition of the roof has further deteriorated since the last visit by SCT. The structure is not wind or watertight and is unsecured.

July 2011: External inspection finds a market deterioration in the condition of the roof since the last visit in 2009, with partial collapse occuring to the south wing. Trees grow extensively through the north wing.