North Ronaldsay, Holland House Cross and Burness, Scotland

Listed Building Data

North Ronaldsay, Holland House has been designated a scheduled monument in Scotland with the following information. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.

Historic Scotland ID
336679 (entity ID)
Building ID
5274
Canmore ID
169261
Category
B
Name
North Ronaldsay, Holland House, Including Outbuildings, Garden Walls, Steading and Cottages
Parish
Cross and Burness
County
Orkney Islands
Easting
375597
Northing
1053102
Date Listed
30 March 1994

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

Early 19th century core, enlarged, S Baikie, 1872, and T S Peace, 1905. 2-storey house with single storey additions and outbuildings in rambling plan. Tower in re-entrant angle, 1905. Rubble masonry, partially harled, droved ashlar dressings and later concrete mullions and margins. Long and short margins to windows; long and short quoins. E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: crowstepped gable end of original house advanced to right; 2 windows (enlarged from original) at ground and smaller window breaking into gablehead above to left; gablehead stack above. Taller, later wing to centre and left, 1872; ball finialled, gabled stone porch at centre at re-entrant angle formed with original house; boarded door in basket-arched doorway; window in left return; window 1st floor above. Bipartite window (1905?) at ground in bay to left; pair of small window under eaves at 1st floor above. S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: gable end of 1872 wing to right with piend-roofed, 3-light, canted window at ground; window at 1st floor above. 3 bays to left; modern lean-to conservatory to outer left and projecting bipartite window bridging centre and right bay; 3 regularly disposed bipartite windows at 1st floor with gabled and finialled dormerheads bearing heraldic shields. TOWER: square-plan tower with corbelled parapet and coped dies; windows to upper stage; long and short quoins. Predominantly 2- and 4-pane timber sash and case windows; some uPVC replacements to S elevation; fixed timber-framed windows to tower. Grey and purple slate roofs; gablet coped skews and console bracketed skewputts to porch to E; mid-point kneelers to skews and ball finial to 1872 gable to S; coped skews elsewhere; stone ridges; rubble corniced stacks; tall cans; predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods. OUTBUILDINGS: single storey service range to W of house; materials as above; end stacks; grey slate roof. Lean-to, single storey 2-bay workshop (?) to E of house, abutting steading to N. Bipartite window to left; single window to right; tall, coped stack, with lead ram's head at base, dividing bays. GARDEN WALLS: coped rubble walls with 2 pairs of square-plan gatepiers sited to E and S of house; concrete caps. 3 evenly disposed iron canons to S of garden, (see Notes).

Listed Building Statement of Special Interest

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

B-Group with Holland House Steading, Factors's House and Bothy and the New Church. Holland House was the last house to be occupied by a leading local family, the Traills, who pruchased the island in 1727. Until the 1967 Crofting Reform Act, North Ronaldsay was the last estate-owned island in Orkney. The canons found in the garden were rescued from the wreck of the Crown Prince in 1744. The adjoining gardens are an important focus for bird migration and provide the only sizeable concentration of trees and shrubs on the island.

Listed Building References

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

Appears on 1st edition OS map (1882); North Ronaldsay Community Council, THE ISLAND OF NORTH RONALDSAY, (pamphlet); information also courtesy of owner, Duncan Robertson, who hold the 1872 signed and dated plans; NMRS Photographic Records, 7273, 4661.