Erected for the Manchester businessman James Brown as part of a series of flamboyant improvements to the Knockbrex Estate, which he had bought in 1894, it was designed in the Gothic Revival style to resemble a fortified castle with battlemented roofs, arrowslit windows and arched entrances.

It is buttressed, and accessed by round arched entrances at either end, and its walls are pierced by large cruciform mock-arrowslit windows.

[4] The southern boundary wall is decorated by the insetting of pebbles taken from the nearby coastline,[5] and is accessed by a gabled gateway with ball finials.

He set about a programme of building on the estate, renovating existing structures and constructing new ones, all in a distinctive and unusual style.

[5][9] In 1981, Corseyard Farm was designated a Category A listed building,[1] but it was already in a state of disrepair and it needed remedial work in 1988 to make it wind and water tight.

[10] In 2017 Historic Environment Scotland gave the plan their backing, and advised Dumfries and Galloway Council to approve the scheme,[11] which they did in November of that year.