Skye, Unish House
Tacksmans House (17th Century) - (19th Century)
Site Name Skye, Unish House
Classification Tacksmans House (17th Century) - (19th Century)
Canmore ID 71351
Site Number NG26NW 1.09
NGR NG 2392 6582
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/71351
- Council Highland
- Parish Duirinish
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
Unish House, c.1602-5; 18th century alterations Believed to have been built for Sir James Spens (c.1560s-1632 ) of Wormiston, a house in Fife with which it shared a remarkably similar ground floor plan. Spens, who from 1608 became a leading diplomat and later army officer in the Swedish service, was one of the Fife Adventurers (see p.265). Unish was described as 'perhaps the earliest truly domestic building in Skye' by the historian David Roberts, who argued a convincing case for its significance. Although it might appear to have originated as a fairly crude dwelling, evidence suggests wider influences. Early features bearing an affinity with 16th century east coast merchants' houses include a doorway through the base of the slightly projecting lateral chimneystack on the north front, and evidence that the ground floor was virtually windowless, with a heated hall above. An inscription of 1745 suggests the date of the remodelling to form a standard three-bay house (significantly, the first floor was originally five bays), with a circular stair turret added to the south front. The building is lime mortared and has put logs for securing thatch. During the 18th century it was the principal house for Waternish (a Macleod tack until 1797). To the east lie remains of an early 19th century courtyard farm and enclosures, and the abandoned township of Bail an Tailleir, first documented in 1708.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
Skye, Unish, Laird's House.
At top of Vaternish Point overlooking the Minch.
Field Visit (1 November 1990)
NG26NW 1.09 2392 6582.
This harled building of three-storeys stands on gently sloping grounds at the N end of Waternish, overlooking the Little Minch. The building has three main phases, covering the period from the early 18th century to the early 20th century.
In the primary phase it was a rectangular three-roomed thatched building, with a chimney-stack in the middle of the NW side, in addition to the gables, serving a fireplace at first-floor level over a ground-floor entrance, and lit by small windows at first floor level. Typically, the primary window-openings are slightly splayed with stone lintels, measuring some 1.1m in height by 0.55m in width.
In the second phase, a stair turret with external access was added to the middle of the SE wall and a wing was built on the N end of the NW side, separated from it by a passage between the two and linked by a non-load-bearing wall, forming a porch in front of the NW door of the house. New and larger window-openings were knocked through, except on the NW wall facing the N wing, and the old ones blocked. These secondary window-openings are also splayed, but have timber lintels and measure some 1.5m in height by 0.85m in width.
In the third phase there were major changes which involved the demolition of the N wing, the reduction of the gable-stacks, the blocking of all the openings in the NW side and the insertion of two lean-to slate roofs, resting upon a stone partition, which was built on the W side of the entrances.
The primary structure is rectangular in plan with two storeys and an attic-floor and measures 9.6m from NE to SW by 4.5m transversely within walls of random rubble 0.75m in thickness, and standing to 5m in height. It faces NW with a central chimney-stack mid-way along this side, which serves a first-floor fireplace over a ground-floor entrance. Projecting 0.45m from the wall-face, the chimney-stack measures 1.95m across and is stepped in laterally 7.4m above the ground, from which it rises, tapering, for another 2.1m to a string course of flat stones around the opening of the flue. A second string course, rising slightly in the middle, runs across the inside face of the chimney at just above wall-head level. The entrance has a roughly-dressed stone lintel 0.85m wide, and has been subsequently blocked with random rubble. There is a pair of windows at first floor level on either side of the chimney-stack, three of which are 0.55m in width and 1.1m in height, and that immediately W of the chimney, is occupied by a larger secondary opening. Offset from the first-floor window arrangement to the W of the entrance is another secondary window opening at ground-floor level.
Both the secondary windows measure 0.85m by 1.5m in height and all the windows have been blocked. On the SE face there are two primary phase windows at first floor level to the W of the turret, both blocked, and four secondary openings, two on each side of the turret and one above the other. The secondary openings, all with splayed ingoes, measure 0.75m to 0.85m in width and 1.4m to 1.5m in height. The ground-floor opening to the W of the turret has subsequently been reduced in width and all but one of the secondary openings on this side show signs of infilling. The stair turret, which is placed asymetrically to the N, measures 2m in diameter internally and displays the scars of a wooden stair. The stub wall on the E side of the door has a groove for a door frame. The ground-floor entrance to the turret is slightly wider than first floor entrance and both had external stone lintels, although that on the ground-floor has fallen away, it is not clear whether these entrances are inserted or not and it is therefore possible that they served an external timber stair in the primary phase. The gables, in comparison with the side-walls, are thickened at 1.55m and 1.15m to the NE and SW respectively to take fireplaces and flues. There are ground-floor fireplaces in each gable, that to the SW has three phases and that to the NE two, each successive phase showing a reduction in the size of fire-box. That in the SW gable has a shallow relieving-arch and it is possible that a lintel has fallen away, but that in the NE gable has a much deeper and more substantial stone arch. This in conjunction with the aumbry in the NW wall to the left of the fireplace, suggest that the kitchen was in the NE end. Both fireplaces at first-floor level are blocked and are set asymetrically to the left side. A partition wall, which appears to be butted to the NW wall (where the absence of plaster allow examination) to the W of the entrance, has a blocked central entrance, with another entrance 0.95m in width between it and the SE wall. There are the stubs of joists and joist-holes on both sides of the building to take the first floor and joist holes at attic level in the SW gable, but not in the other gable. The sloping cement scars of two lean-to slate roofs, visible on the inside walls, run down from the gables to the top of the stone partition. All around the house there are thatch-tie stones projecting from the walls at 0.85m below the wall top, one of which is now partly hidden by the easterly abutment of the walls of the stair-turret, and on the gable-ends. There are two small windows at attic-floor level in the NE gable and one in the SW gable and there is a blocked fireplace in the N gable.
The N range is rectangular and is reduced to its foundations. It measures 6.9m from NW to SE by 3.8m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.85m in thickness and 0.4m in height. A baffle wall describes a right-angle between the SW corner of the N wing and the W side of the front or NW entrance to form a passage 1.9m wide between the N wing and the main building (356-7).
In date the primary structure with its high and narrow proportions and steeply raking roof, the central chimney-stack in the NW wall and the small window openings, belongs in a late 17th or early 18th century context, which fits the documented lease of Unish in 1708 by Donald Macleod (Macleod 1929, 82). The second phase with the rounded stair turret and larger windows may be placed in a late 18th or early 19th century context. The final phase follows an abandonment in the middle of the 19th century and a reoccupation at the end of the century as recorded in the depiction on the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (Island of Skye &., Inverness-shire, 1880, 1904, sheet v).
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 1 November 1990.
Measured Survey (1990)
RCAHMS surveyed Unish House in 1990, producing a plan and elevation at a scale of 1:100. The resultant plan and elevation was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:200 (RCAHMS 1993a Fig.4).
