Ancilliary Buildings, Bu Of Hoy, Hoy

This is a house dating back to around 1615, with later changes and additions. It is a roughly rectangular building of five bays, with a crowstepped gabled design, meaning the gables have stepped projections. Dormer windows with crowstepped gables are also present. A detached, one-and-a-half-storey annex, creating an L-shaped complex to the east, and several single-storey ancillary buildings to the east and south complete the property. The main house is harled (roughcast), while the annex and ancillary buildings are constructed of harl-pointed random rubble stone, with some drystone elements.

The south elevation, which is the principal facade, has a window on each floor in the central bay. To the right of the centre is an entrance porch with a window on the south side, and a boarded door with a small-paned fanlight on the return side. A window is found on each floor in the right-hand bay, and a low-set door at ground level in the left-hand bay. Another window is on each floor in the left-hand bay. The north elevation is irregular, with three bays, featuring a low-set window in the central and right bays, and a small window in the left bay. The west and east sides are also irregular. The west side is blank except for a gablehead stack. The east side has a window on each floor in the right-hand bay, and a forestair (external staircase) leading to the annex. A gablehead stack is also present. The interior of the main house was not inspected in 1998.

The house has replacement four-pane timber sash and case windows, with small rooflights in the north roof slope. The roof is covered in traditional graded stone tiles, with a stone ridge and cavetto-moulded skewputts (decorative gables). One skewputt bears the initials "HH." The gablehead and ridge stacks are corniced and harled, and the rainwater goods are predominantly uPVC.

Drystone boundary walls with a stone cope enclose the garden around the house, and square-plan piers with stepped caps are situated on the north side.

The annex has a boarded door at ground level in its central bay on the east elevation. On the west elevation is a central buttress and an attic window that breaks the eaves, offset to the left. A ground floor window is situated in the outer left bay, and lean-to additions with a window spanning the bays to the right. The north elevation features a first-floor door and a gablehead stack above. The south elevation includes a lean-to at ground level, a blank space above, and a gablehead stack.

The ancillary buildings are irregularly fenestrated and are later, parallel, one-and-a-half-storey ranges positioned east to west, built on a sloping ground falling eastward. They have harl-pointed random rubble construction and corrugated asbestos and iron roofs. They feature a stone ridge and stone skews, with a gablehead stack on each western gable. A centred, pitch-roofed porch faces south. A single-storey, three-bay range is located between them, with a central door flanked by windows on the east elevation, and a traditional stone tiled roof with a stone ridge and skew. Stone slab livestock compartments and a central muck trough are also present.