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Summary

Description

Lighthouse shore station complex of 1856 with some later additions and alterations. Principal group, surmounting bluff to E, comprising accommodation block with cottage disposed at right angles to NE and enclosed by wall. Narrow valley to W of bluff with slipway and store at inlet to N, single storey 3-bay cottage to S, and walled garden bounding W side with water cistern on hillside above.

ACCOMMODATION BLOCK: symmetrical 2-storey 7-bay accommodation building with flanking single storey, single bay wings. Harled and whitewashed brick walls with stone dressings. Base course, eaves course with blocking course above. Projecting cills to windows, long and short quoins to windows, doors, and corners.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; window at ground in centre bay, 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with 3-pane fanlights in flanking bays, regular fenestration in outer bays and at 1st floor (centre window blind). Window altered from door in wing to right.

S ELEVATION: single storey wing advanced at ground with door to right of centre and window to outer left; blank S wall of central block rising behind.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: symmetrical, infilled doors at centre flanked by windows and full-height projections with concrete stairs; windows at each floor to outer left and right.

N ELEVATION: mirrored image of S elevation.

Predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows; some modern glazing to principal front in bays to right of centre. Flat roofs to principal block and wings, 4-flue stacks asymmetrically disposed along centre line of principal roof, harled and coped with circular cans.

COTTAGE: single storey 3-bay cottage of rectangular plan. Harled walls, base and eaves courses, projecting cills to windows. Symmetrical N (principal) elevation, 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber door with 3-pane fanlight in centre bay, 12-pane timber sash and case windows in flanking bays. 3-bay S (rear) elevation with 12-pane timber sash and case windows in bays to centre and left, right bay obscured by flat-roofed addition. Purple-grey slate roof with concrete skew-copes and truncated gablehead stacks.

WALL: principal buildings enclosed to S, W, and N by whitewashed rubble wall with semicircular cope: W wall stepped up at ends, returning to steel pedestrian gates in N and S walls, latter terminated to E by flat-roofed boilerhouse with tall single-flue stack.

SUNDIAL: fluted cast-iron base to former sundial (now removed, 1997) to N of principal buildings.

SOUTH COTTAGE AND STEPS: single storey 3-bay cottage of rectangular plan. Whitewashed rubble walls. Principal elevation to E; vertically-boarded timber door offset to left of centre, 10-pane timber casements to windows in flanking bays. Blank side and rear elevations. Tarred roof with coped stone stack to S gable. Concrete steps adjoining S gable, curving N and ascending to meet approach road to principal buildings.

STORE, SLIPWAY AND DERRICK: 2-bay vertically-boarded timber store building with stone base to S end of slipway. Vertically-boarded timber door in right bay and 12-pane timber fixed-light in left bay of SE elevation; 4-pane timber fixed-light to NE gable. Random rubble (formerly gabled) ruin adjoining SW gable, with further rubble ruins to SW. Tarred roof to store with timber ventilator at ridge. Random rubble slipway extending N along rock face; stone steps to beach at S end, cast-iron derrick to N end comprising pivoting central mast with boom and winch supported by triangulated stays to W.

WATER CISTERN: harl-pointed rubble cistern of rectangular plan with curved roof and vertically-boarded timber hatch in E end.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND WALLED GARDEN: random rubble wall with semi-circular rubble cope circumventing bluff and clasping cottage at SW corner; random rubble retaining wall to NE side of approach road, terminated at foot by square stugged ashlar gatepiers with stone caps. Long, irregularly-shaped walled garden to W of road, terminated to N by slipway store.

Statement of Special Interest

These buildings form the shore station for the North Unst Lighthouse on Muckle Flugga (see separate listing). Designed by David and Thomas Stevenson in 1858, the light was built after bitter argument between the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses and the Board of Trade (Trinity House). Worried that the war in Crimea might spread to northern waters, Trinity House insisted that the ?eminent engineer? would overcome any difficulties. A photograph of circa 1875 shows the walls to be built of exposed brick, with stone dressings, and the chimneys all to have octagonal cans. When the Northern Lighthouse Board built the slip etc. in the late 19th century, local fishermen lost their drying beach, and so an artificial one was built on the mound at the S end of the dyke.

References

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