Swiney House

Swiney House is a mid-18th century, two-storey and attic, symmetrical five-bay house. The exterior is harled with painted reveals, ashlar margins and dressings. The central doorpiece is pedimented and keystoned, with long and short detailing on the jambs, although it is now masked by a modern flat-roofed glazed porch. The central bay rises into a shaped attic pediment, featuring a keystoned round-headed window with blocked imposts and a central apex stack. The outer windows are slightly paired, with the right-hand ground floor window being blind. There are two ground floor and one first floor window in the east gable, and one ground floor and one first floor window in the west gable. Paired attic windows are present in both gables. The windows have 8-pane glazing. Other external details include chamfered ashlar quoins, a moulded eaves cornice, diminutive scroll skewputts to the rear, panelled end stacks, and a slurried Caithness slate roof. A rear projecting gabled stairwell rises to ridge height, and is flanked by later single-storey wings with cat-slide roofs.

Inside, the entrance hall contains a grand staircase framed by round-headed, keystoned arches; the right-hand arch leads to a rear passage.

The house was held by Patrick Mowat "as of Swinzie" in 1638. Subsequent ownership passed to Charles Gordon of Swiney, who purchased it from Patrick Sinclair Sutherland for $5,500. According to Captain J Henderson’s “General Review of the Agriculture of the County of Caithness” (1812, p.26), and his “Notes on Caithness Family History” (1884, pp.179, 326-7), this history also includes details of the purchase.