Working farm conservation:
Wester Kittochside
East Kilbride · 2026
Wester Kittochside is the historic farmhouse and steading at the heart of the National Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland and run by National Museums Scotland, it is still a working farm, with a dairy herd milked daily in front of visitors. Over two phases, with Adams Napier Partnership as contract administrator, we carried out the external fabric repairs to the West Range in 2025 to 2026 and then to the East Range and byres in 2026, while the farm kept working and the museum stayed open every day.
Before & after
Drag across the image to compare the building before our work and after completion.
BeforeAfter
The challenge
The roofs were heavily mossed, the slates and their fixings were failing, skew copes had open joints and tired mortar fillets, and the rubble walls needed raking out and repointing in lime. The real test was the setting. This is a working farm with livestock moving between fields and byres, a milking routine that cannot stop, and a steady stream of visitors, families walking the farmyard. Every lift, delivery and scaffold change had to fit around animal movements, milking times and opening hours, without ever putting the public or the herd at risk.
Our solution
We planned the works around the farm, not the other way round. Before each phase, programme and access arrangements were agreed with the museum team, and our site manager joined the daily operations meeting so works were planned around animal movements and milking. Deliveries were timed between the milk lorry leaving and the museum opening, livestock routes and gates were kept clear, and our operatives stayed out of livestock enclosures. The working areas were enclosed with Heras fencing, hoarding and debris-netted scaffold, giving visitors a clear, signed route through the courtyard, and visitor handwashing points were kept available near the animals. To keep the buildings dry while the roofs were open, we erected a temporary roof on the scaffold over the whole structure, so the stripped roofs, sarking and new membrane were protected from rain and the work carried on through poor weather without risk of water getting in. On the roofs, slate courses and diminishing coursing were recorded before stripping, the slates were set aside and relaid on a new breathable underlay with the original coursing kept, the rooflights were overhauled and refitted, and new lead flashings were formed. Skew copes were repointed with new lime mortar fillets. The walls were raked out and repointed in lime, with deep packing to voided joints and the new pointing cured under damp hessian, and finished in three coats of limewash. Doors were overhauled, with new timber made at our own yard, and the rainwater goods, windows and doors were redecorated.
“It all looks great and we're really pleased with how this project turned out. Thanks to everyone at LTM for their hard work on this!”
Brigit LuffinghamBuilding Conservation Surveyor, National Trust for Scotland
Outcomes
A farm that never stopped
Milking, livestock movements and visitor access carried on every day across both phases.
Visitors kept safe and welcome
Fenced, netted and signed working areas kept the public clear of the works while the courtyard stayed open.
Weathertight, whatever the weather
A temporary roof kept the opened roofs dry throughout; they were then reslated on the original coursing, with skews and lead renewed and the walls repointed and limewashed in lime.
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