Skye, Lyndale House, Steading Court

Lynedale ('Lianadal', dale of flax), c.1760; restored by Ian Begg, 1997. The original two-storey, four-bay house with lower flanking wings (the nepus gable is a later alteration) was built for Macleod's factor, Col. Alexander Macdonald, a noted agricultural improver who introduced the swing plough to Skye in 1791, son of the prosperous Donald Macdonald of Lynedale and Balranald. Within the right hand wing are suggestions of an earlier structure, supporting documentary evidence that there had long been a house at Lynedale. Restoration (involving removal of the 1870s drawing/dining room wing) has returned the house to something resembling its 18th century form. Ancillary structures include: rubbly steading court; secretive walled garden and shy, tea-caddy gatelodge of c.1840, its boat-like roof staked down by a massive central stack.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2007. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk