Ancillary to north, West Side, Dunnet

A mid to late 19th century croft complex located in a rural setting just outside Dunnet village near Thurso. Known locally as Mary Ann's Cottage after its last owner and occupier, the site is now open to the public as a museum.

The complex comprises a traditional longhouse-type L-plan crofthouse with adjoining outbuildings, a detached thatched pig house to the rear (west), and a kailyard with integrated milkhouse to the east. All buildings are rubble-built with gabled forms and a variety of traditional roofing materials.

The three-bay single-storey crofthouse forms the centre of the complex. It has end chimneystacks, Caithness slate roof, whitewashed walls, and a central door with eight-pane sash and case windows to the main east elevation. A lean-to extension was added around 1960 to the rear, providing a kitchen and W.C.

Adjoining outbuildings step down on either side of the crofthouse. To the north is a store, workshop and hen house or 'little barn', each with corrugated metal roofs, skylights and two door openings. The rear of the stable and byre has been partially rebuilt in blockwork. A cart shed and turnip store abut to the south, roofed with very large Caithness flags. A threshing barn, added in 1905, abuts at right angles to the south with a roof of Caithness slates, a tiny window to the south elevation, and a larger attic window to the west gable.

The detached pig house to the rear is thatched in marram grass and has a small yard formed by upright Caithness flags. The kailyard to the immediate east is built of low drystone walls with upright Caithness flags to the north. A rubble and slate milkhouse is integrated to the southwest corner of the kailyard, along with a peat neuk and former duckhouse (later kennel), both with walls and roofs formed in Caithness flags.

The crofthouse interior comprises an entrance corridor, a bedroom to the south, and a kitchen to the north providing access to a further bedroom behind the entrance corridor and the later lean-to extension. The interior is maintained as a museum displaying 19th and early 20th century household artefacts and furnishings, including v-boarded wall panelling, two box beds, and a chimney piece with an open hearth and cooking equipment. The outbuildings display various agricultural objects and largely retain Caithness flag flooring and 20th century roof structures. Stone slab trevises (partitions) and troughs remain in the byre, timber stall dividers in the stable, and the milk house has shelving units made from Caithness flags.

A flagstone-paved close with drainage channel runs along the front of the house, leading to a drain in front of the barn door.

This is a well-preserved example of a traditional croft complex. Such vernacular buildings were once prolific across the Highlands and Islands, but those surviving substantially unaltered are rare. West Side Cottage demonstrates regional traditional building methods and materials and retains significant historic fabric, its 19th century footprint, vernacular form, character and setting. The retention and grouping of the crofthouse with its various ancillary structures is of special interest, particularly the thatched pig house.

The pig house is one of only around 40 buildings or groups of buildings in the Highlands known to retain an intact thatched roof. A 2016 survey by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings found approximately 200 such buildings remaining in Scotland, mostly in small rural communities. Thatched buildings often display distinctive local and regional building methods and materials. Those that survive are important in demonstrating traditional building skills and an earlier way of life.