Publication Account
Date 1997
Event ID 1017027
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017027
The restored buildings that form this museum include not only the immediate steading with its house, byre and barn but also a typical corn mill, and the whole complex allows a fascinating insight into rural life in Shetland a hundred years ago. The furniture and fittings are mostly original to the house, but many smaller items have come from the collections of the Shetland Museum. The various components of the farmstead were built as conjoining units, aligned downslope to help drainage from the byre set at the lower end of the dwelling range. A cross-passage between the byre and the living-room provides access as well to the barn built longside the north wall of the house. Another door in the opposite wall of the barn allowed the creation of the cross-draught necessary for winnowing. The circular corn-drying kiln is at the upper end of the barn, and a storeroom at the lower end. At the upper end of the house, beyond the living-room, there is the bedroom with a wooden box bed and a wooden cradle. Both the dwelling range and the adjoining barn are roofed with thatch over a timber frame, held against the wind by ropes and stone weights. The west gable of the dwelling range incorporates a stone-built chimney, but there is an interesting reconstruction of a thatched smokehole midway between the two gables which served the original living-room hearth.
A path leads downhill to the south-east to the mill (HU 401145), the lowest of three clack mills on a tiny burn running fast down to the sea. Though very small, it would be quite adequate in performance and has been restored to working order. Like the farmstead, its roof is thatched and held by stone weights.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).
