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Summary

Description

Mid 19th century with later alterations. Single storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan symmetrical cottage with square-plan entrance porch and lean-to addition at rear; single storey L-plan farm buildings to E; single storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan symmetrical bothy to SW; single storey threshing barn on N-S axis, with adjacent wind-powered water pump to W; single storey barn on N-S axis to S of threshing barn. Cottage: harled. Farm buildings: harled and rubble. Bothy: harl-pointed rubble. Threshing barn and barn: rubble and harled respectively.

COTTAGE: S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: window in porch in bay to centre; boarded door in right return; window in left return. Window in each bay flanking.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: blank elevation with blank lean-to addition to left.

E (SIDE) ELEVATION: window offset to left in gabled bay to left; gablehead stack above. Boarded door in lean-to bay to right.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: window offset to right; gablehead stack above.

12-pane timber sash and case windows; fixed timber-framed window with top hung upper light to porch. Corrugated-iron roof; stone ridge; coped skews; harled, coped gablehead stacks to E and W; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1998.

FARM BUILDINGS: various rectangular-plan barns and byres forming L-plan complex to NE of main cottage. Predominantly corrugated-iron roofs; some graded stone tiled roofs; some coped skews; boarded doors, some sliding.

INTERIORS: byre forming N range: timber rafters and tie beams; concrete stall divisions along E wall; central slurry channel. Remainder not fully seen, 1998.

BOTHY: W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: corrugated-iron, lean-to entrance porch in bay to centre; boarded door to left return. Window in each bay flanking.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: window in bay to centre. Lean-to addition in bay to left; boarded door to right return.

N AND S (SIDE) ELEVATIONS: blank gabled elevations; gablehead stacks.

Fixed, 4-pane timber-framed windows. Graded stone tiled roof; stone ridge; flagstone roof to rear addition; rubble, corniced gablehead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1998.

THRESHING BARN: E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: centred 2-leaf folding door.

N (END) ELEVATION: part-boarded window to gablehead.

S (END) ELEVATION: gablehead window.

Fixed timber-framed windows. Graded stone tiled roof; stone ridge.

INTERIOR: floor divided as grain store to S end; formerly engine-powered timber threshing machine along W wall.

WIND PUMP: steel-framed tripod supporting steel sails in circular arrangement; wind-direction paddle from centre; rectangular water tank raised on concrete support adjacent to N.

BARN: centred 2-leaf boarded doors to S. Corrugated-iron roof.

Statement of Special Interest

The interest in these buildings lies mainly in the wind-powered water pump and the threshing barn. The wind pump is manufactured by Climax, of Horsham, Surrey, as were several other, basically identical pumps on the mainland. It was installed by the Army in the early 1940s at Holm, also on the mainland, where a large Army supply depot was located. The wind pump supplied water for the site. It was dismantled and rebuilt at the present site in the early 1950s, replacing a hand pump which was the previous method of water supply at the Ness. The upper mechanism consists of 18 sheet metal sails (reduced in length from the original) and a fan tail just over a meter long. A timber pump rod (now missing) was housed by the tapered metal frame and caused water to be delivered to the pressed steel tank flanking it. Very few wind pumps survive in Orkney, often having been dismantled when settlements were connected to a mains water supply. The threshing machinery in the threshing barn, always referred to on the OS maps as a corn mill, was driven by a Tangye lamp-oil engine, manufactured in the 1920s. Although this no longer remains, the brightly painted timber housing is remarkably intact, with the feeder table and the elevator to the grain loft at either end. The engine house formerly existed as a concrete outshot to the W of the threshing barn which was built over the former water wheel. This no longer exists.

References

Bibliography

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