Raasay, Raasay House, Home Farm, Top Barn

Top Barn, 1856 (the year a diary entry records 'heather barn destroyed by fire') A long, piend-roofed threshing barn with extensive timber louvring. Boswell's description of its predecessor shows how little the general form of these Kintail barns has changed: 'about the highth of an ordinary dike, and above that is work of wattles covered on the outside with heath … And it is well thatched with heath. This is better than having slits in the walls, for the air comes more equally'. Among this ensemble of good 19th century estate buildings are the kennels (a row of seven in a single block) and former laundry (now a farmhouse).

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk