Girnal House, Littleferry

Girnal House, dated 1859, began as a mid-18th century rectangular girnel or storehouse. It was converted in 1859 into a single-storey and attic range of five dwellings, with three on the ground floor and two in the attic space. Access to the attic is provided by forestairs at the northeast and southwest gables.

The building is constructed of harled rubble with grey ashlar cornerstones, incorporating copes to the forestairs, crowsteps, and cavetto skewputts. Tooled red sandstone dressings are used for all the 1859 work. The long, asymmetrical southeast frontage has seven bays, with a central door, flanked by a rectangular bay window with a swept roof. Single doors are located in the outer bays, and there are three tripartite windows. Four gabled dormers rise from the wallhead, some with tripartite and others with bipartite windows. Centre doors are situated on the first floor of both gables, accompanied by small flanking windows. Two tall hipped wallhead stacks are positioned in the outer rear bays, with two further tall, paired ridge stacks incorporating coped details. The roof is steeply pitched and covered in slate.

The building stands close to the shore at Littleferry. Originally used as a store to hold grain pending collection by boat, it served as storage for surplus grain from the Dunrobin estate by at least 1772. A datestone is found in the pediment of one dormer, and a monogram “SS” (likely Sutherland/Stafford) appears in another.