Crow-step gable

A crow-stepped gable, stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a step pattern above the roof as a decoration and as a convenient way to finish the brick courses.

Early examples, from the 15th century onwards, are found in Denmark, England, Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and Sweden. Crow-stepped gables are especially common on traditional Dutch houses and Danish medieval churches.

Crow-stepped gables were also used in Scotland as early as the 16th century. Examples of Scottish crow-stepped gable can be seen at Muchalls Castle, Monboddo House, and the Stonehaven Tolbooth, all late 16th- and early 17th-century buildings.

19th-century examples are found in North America, and the step gable is also a feature of the northern-Renaissance Revival and Dutch Colonial Revival styles.

In Devon, Cornwall, Brittany and Ireland early stone masonry buildings shared the same form stepped gable construction, however the steps are more commonly filled with large cut triangular sloping corbel stones to form a continuously expressed pitch characteristic of early 'Celtic' architecture such as oratories and Holy wells. Examples include Dupath Well , St Cleer , St Kevins

Convenient access to the roof ridge motivated the crow-step design, along with the availability of squarish stones to accomplish this form of construction. The access would have been convenient for chimney sweeps and roofers in earlier times, where cranes were non-existent and tall ladders were not common.

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