Description

Mid to later 19th century with later alterations and additions. Single storey, 4-bay rectangular-plan cottage adjoining single bay barn to right (NE) with single storey byre range at right angles forming L-plan; 1 1/2 storey square-plan kiln to angle. Single storey, 3-bay cottage adjoining further single storey barn/byre to S, forming separate range to W of main L-plan complex. Squared rubble.

MAIN, L-PLAN RANGE: SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2 boarded door to central bays; window in each bay to outer left and right. Doorway, offset to left, to barn adjoining to right. Large square-headed opening to terminal gable of short arm of L to right; large square-headed opening to lean-to addition to left. Blank SW elevation of short arm; centred window to lean-to to outer right. REAR (NW AND NE) ELEVATIONS: NW ELEVATION: window in each bay to cottage to outer right. Boarded door with boarded window flanking to barn to centre. Blank lean-to projecting from kiln to outer left. NE ELEVATION: blank gabled wall to kiln to outer right. Lean-to projection from centre with doorway to right return; large, square-headed doorway to right. Boarded door to left.

DETACHED S RANGE: E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bay cottage to outer right with doorway and 2 flanking windows. Lower, single bay barn/byre to centre with doorway, offset to left. Single bay barn/byre to outer right with centred doorway. W (REAR) ELEVATION: blank. S (SIDE) ELEVATION: centred doorway; paired dovecote entrances to gablehead with projecting alighting cills.

Fixed timber-framed windows to main cottage. Predominantly traditional overseamed flagstone roofs with extensive cement mortaring to main cottage; some turf overlay; harled, corniced gablehead and ridge stacks to main cottage.

INTERIORS: not seen, 1998.

Statement of Interest

From records showing the apportionment of communal sheep on the island, Nether Linnay's allocation can be seen to be high, at 50 sheep. Only a few other crofts, including Kirbest, Westness, Peckhole and Hooking have been allocated higher numbers. As with Gateside, (see separate list description), the 1 1/2 storey square-plan kiln indicates the possibility of Nether Linnay being a result of the 1830s agricultural reforms undertaken by the factor, Robert Scarth, who might also have imposed his ideas about farm layouts. The relative grandeur of the tall kiln and its position at the angle of the range, instead of within one of the traditional pairs of parallel ranges of farm buildings, might have been influenced by the arrangement of 'high' farm buildings, like Braebuster, on the mainland. Appears on 1st edition OS map as a Post Office. Nether Linnay remains relatively intact in form and continues to display the traditional type of Orkney flagstone roofing.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17826868

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)