Whalsay, Symbister, Symbister House

Set conspicuously above the harbour, this is the most outstanding Georgian mansion in the Northern Isles, with its imposing facade and symmetrical layout of domestic offices behind. It was built at great expense by Robert Bruce of Symbister in the 1830s, replacing an earlier house, and since 1940 it has been converted into a school, losing some of its original character, including its elegant wings. The house consisted initially of two storeys with a basement, but there is now an attic; the impressive entrance with its columned portico is reached by a stair. The ground-floor windows were originally rectangular within round-arched recesses, but they have been enlarged to fill the recesses, altering the balance of the house.

On the west side of the house, above a gateway in a screen-wall leading to a rear entrance, there is a fine armorial panel in excellent condition, which may have come from the earlier house. It bears the date 1750 and the arms and initials of John Bruce Steuart and Christina Gifford, together with those of the sculptor John Forbes. The formal ranges round a courtyard behind the house include stables and coach-houses, embellished with classical urns. The east range has a central belfry and the west a dovecote tower, the latter decorated with an extraordinary quatrefoil recess filled with stone balls.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).