Kirkhouse, Papa Westray

Kirkhouse is a single-storey cottage from the mid to later 19th century, featuring a rectangular plan and attached outbuildings. The cottage has a well-preserved interior that includes box beds and is constructed of rubble.

On the south elevation, the cottage is positioned to the right, with an entrance that has a boarded timber door located to the right of centre, flanked by windows. To the left, there are two small outbuildings, each with a boarded timber door, with the left one rendered and slightly elevated.

The north elevation is blank, with an outbuilding on the outer right that is also slightly elevated. There are remains of the side wall of an earlier range adjoining to the right.

The east elevation features a small window to the right of the gable end. The west elevation has a large, two-leaf timber door that spans the width of the gable end, which was previously part of an earlier range that has since been demolished. The gable is covered with corrugated asbestos.

The cottage has 4-pane timber fixed casement windows and a flagstone roof. The outbuildings have been re-roofed with corrugated asbestos. There are ridge and gablehead stacks with narrow band courses on either side of the cottage, with one round can remaining.

Inside, the layout follows a baffle entry plan with timber partitions and box beds. The roof is open and lined with timber sarking, and there are boarded timber doors throughout. The floor is stone flagged. The room to the left of the entrance has a plain timber fireplace surround with a mantel shelf, while the room to the right features a plain stone lintel above a fireplace with a cast-iron range.