Ayre Mill House, Kirkwall

This is a later 19th-century building of 1869, originally a saw and meal mill, now converted into flats. It has undergone later alterations and additions. The building comprises a 3-storey and attic, 15-bay mill, with a raised, crowstepped-gabled kiln on either side, a 2-storey, 3-bay house attached to the west end, and a single-storey, 3-bay store attached to the east end.

The west end is harled, while the east end is constructed of squared and roughly coursed rubble. A cornice runs between the floors on the west end, and there is an eaves course.

The main (north) elevation is divided into bays grouped as 2-6-6-1. The central 6 bays have a boarded door in the penultimate bay to the right, and regularly disposed windows at each floor. One window at ground level is blocked. To the right of centre are another 6 bays, though appearing 7 at ground level, with modern part-glazed doors in bays 1, 5, and 7, and regularly disposed windows above. To the outer left is a 2-bay kiln with a boarded door and a small attic window. To the outer right is another 2-bay kiln with a large sliding door, a flanking modern part-glazed door, a first-floor window, and two evenly disposed circular motifs above. The attached house on the right has a modern part-glazed door with a small-pane fanlight, flanked by windows on each floor. The store to the far left has a sliding boarded door flanked by two small windows.

The rear (south) elevation is irregularly fenestrated, with a single-storey range spanning the central bays at ground level, a piended addition to the outer right, and a 6-bay, single-storey, pitched-roofed addition projecting at right angles to the outer left.

The east side elevation shows a store addition projecting from the ground, a tall central stair window, and two evenly disposed attic windows.

Windows are a variety of types, including fixed small-pane timber-framed windows, uPVC windows, replacement small-pane timber-framed windows with top-hung upper lights, and 4-pane timber sash and case windows to the west end house. The roof is grey slate with a stone ridge, stone skews, a harled and coped gablehead stack to the west end of the mill complex, and predominantly uPVC rainwater goods.

The interior was not inspected in 1998.