Hoy Sound Lighthouse, Graemsay

The complex comprises a lighthouse, keepers' cottages, and boundary walls, built in 1851 by Alan Stevenson. The lighthouse is a six-stage, circular-plan tower that tapers towards the top, with a lantern house. A single-stage, semi-circular coal-store and dry-store adjoins the east side, and a rectangular-plan court sits to the west, with a symmetrical, single-storey, ten-bay, Egyptian-style keepers' accommodation block.

The tower is constructed from painted stugged sandstone ashlar, with channelled ashlar at the sixth stage. It features a base course, a blocking course to the coal-store, a band course below the sixth stage, and cast-iron railings supported by pointed-headed mock machiolations around the balcony at the sixth stage. The keepers’ accommodation has stugged ashlar sandstone with polished dressings. The front elevation (east) features massive, projecting door surrounds with a band course below a cavetto cornice, and a blocking course with a raised central panel above.

The tower has a raised doorpiece on its west (court) side at the first stage, with a band course below an outswept cornice and shallow pediment above. A timber-panelled door provides access, while boarded doors flank the entrance to the coal-store. Three blocked windows are evenly disposed in the curved side of the coal-store to the east, and two evenly disposed tall, tapering stacks rise above with a band course and outswept cornices. A boarded window is present at each stage on the east side of the tower, alongside a pointed-arched window at the sixth stage on the west side. The lantern has triangular-pane glass and a hemispherical dome.

Inside the tower, a spiral stone staircase has a timber handrail. The lamp room, lined with timber, sits beneath the lantern. A painted central column supports the iron lantern floor, and brass angel statuettes and ventilators are decorated with the faces of wind gods. A timber and iron staircase with a brass handrail leads to the lantern, which features a decorative lattice walkway. Triangular pane apexes have lion masks, and a riveted dome with a central ventilator sits above.

The keepers’ houses have a principal elevation (east) with a window in two recessed bays at the centre. Deep-set, two-leaf boarded doors with small-pane fanlights are in the advanced bays flanking the entrance, alongside windows in the recessed bays. The rear elevation (west) is six bays wide, with windows in recessed and advanced bays.

The windows are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case. The lighthouse complex is topped with a platform roof, tall tapered stacks with a band course below outswept cornices, tall cans, and predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior of the keepers’ houses includes timber skirting boards, architraves, and panelled doors, alongside timber-panelled shutters.

Boundary walls of roughly coursed rubble with a curved rubble cope enclose the courtyard and a rectangular garden to the south. Square-plan stugged ashlar gatepiers with cornices stand to the north.