Sanday, Backaskaill Mains
Farmstead (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Sanday, Backaskaill Mains
Classification Farmstead (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Backaskaill Mains
Canmore ID 116832
Site Number HY63NW 51
NGR HY 64188 39298
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/116832
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Cross And Burness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY63NW 51.00 64180 39332
HY63NW 51.01 64179 39265 Threshing barn
Backaskaill. This open, rectangular plan steading incorporates a grieve's house with an attached farmhouse. The complex includes two large new sheds, one with cubicles for cattle, the other for silage. It has a very large threshing barn with an overshot water wheel, which sits below ground level. This was said to have been the largest for this purpose on Orkney. The threshing machine has been removed. The house and parts of the steading were in agricultural use and were in good order on the date of survey. Disused parts are in a dilapidated condition.
Visited by RCAHMS - Scottish Farm Buildings Survey (GJD) October 1996; NMRS MS/500/36/75.
RCAHMS and NMS, 1998b.
Steading court with a central pyramid-roofed tower over a wide segmental-arched pend, flanked by single storey ranges in rubble and slate. The complex incorporates a threshing barn that retains the largest water wheel in Orkney.
Field Visit (1999)
This farmstead, built on a rectangular plan, incorporates a grieve's house with an attached farmhouse, a threshing barn, cattle and silage sheds. Some of the buildings, including the house, remain in use; the disused portions are in poor condition. Ref.: RCAHMS & NMS (1998) 'Scottish Farm Building Survey: Orkney', # 2.
Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, 1999
