Holland House, North Ronaldsay

The building is an outbuilding, part of Holland House, with a core dating to the early 19th century. It was significantly enlarged in 1872 under S Baikie and again in 1905 by T S Peace, resulting in a rambling 2-storey house with single-story additions and outbuildings. A tower was added in the re-entrant angle in 1905.

The building is constructed of rubble masonry, some of which is harled, with dressings of droved ashlar and later concrete mullions and margins. Window surrounds feature long and short margins, and quoins are similarly treated.

The east (entrance) elevation shows an advanced crowstepped gable end, likely from the original house, with two enlarged windows at ground level and a smaller window in the gablehead above. A taller wing, constructed in 1872, sits to the centre and left, topped with a ball-finialled, gabled stone porch. This porch contains a boarded door within a basket-arched doorway, and a window in the return. A bipartite window is found at ground level in a bay to the left, over which is a pair of smaller windows in the first-floor eaves.

The south (garden) elevation features the gable end of the 1872 wing to the right, with a piend-roofed, three-light canted window at ground level and a window above. Three bays are to the left, with a modern lean-to conservatory to the outer left, and a projecting bipartite window bridging the centre and right bays. Three regularly disposed bipartite windows are found on the first floor, each with a gabled and finialled dormerhead bearing heraldic shields.

The tower is square, with a corbelled parapet and coped dies, and has windows to the upper stage. It is defined by long and short quoins.

The windows are predominantly 2- and 4-pane timber sash and case, with some modern uPVC replacements on the south elevation. Fixed timber-framed windows are found in the tower. The roofs are covered in grey and purple slate, with gablet coped skews and console bracketed skewputts to the porch on the east elevation. A ball finial tops the 1872 gable to the south, and mid-point kneelers decorate the skews. Stone ridges are present, as are rubble corniced stacks, tall cans, and predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods.

Service outbuildings are located to the west of the main house, constructed of matching materials and with end stacks and a grey slate roof. A lean-to, single-story workshop is located to the east, abutting a steading to the north. This workshop has a bipartite window to the left and a single window to the right, separated by a tall, coped stack with a lead ram's head at its base.

Coped rubble garden walls enclose the site. Two pairs of square-plan gatepiers are situated to the east and south of the house, with concrete caps. Three evenly disposed iron cannons are positioned to the south of the garden.