North Ronaldsay, Rue

North Ronaldsay, Rue is a late 18th to early 19th century crofting longhouse, subsequently altered. It is graded as a building of regional or more than local importance.

The main building is single storey with seven bays arranged in an elongated rectangular plan and asymmetrical form. It features a projecting wing and a stable and barn range to the north-east (rear). Construction is of roughly coursed and re-pointed rubble, with aisin stones forming the eaves course. A separate four-bay rectangular-plan rubble barn and byre range stands to the south-east of the main building.

The south-west (entrance) elevation comprises five bays of the house with a lower two-bay byre adjoining to the south-east. The house has a deep-set boarded door with letterbox fanlight in the penultimate left bay, windows in each bay flanking, a window in the penultimate right bay, and a deep-set boarded door in the outer right bay. The byre has a centred window and a boarded door in the outer left bay.

The north-east (rear) elevation shows the house with windows in each of two bays to the left, a blank wall to the centred wing with a gablehead stack above, and a boarded door with flanking window to the right in the left return. A stepped stable and barn wing to the left has a doorway with flanking window, a boarded door in the lower block to the right, and another boarded door set close to the re-entrant angle to the left.

The south-east (side) elevation features a single-storey lean-to advanced to the outer left, a small square opening (formerly a muck-hole) to the right, and a dovecote with two flight-holes and alighting ledge set in the gablehead above.

The north-west (side) elevation has a single window offset to the left with a gablehead stack above.

Windows are four- and six-pane timber sash and case types. The roof is overseamed flagstone with a concrete ridge. Stacks are rubble, corniced at gablehead and ridge, and rainwater goods are replacement uPVC.

The interior has been modernised. The main dwelling area forms one long space with the end on a lower level.

A detached four-bay rectangular-plan drystone barn and cartshed stands to the south-east of the main building, with a doorway in each bay and flagstone roof. A small outhouse with flagstone roof adjoins the boundary wall immediately south-west of the north-west gable. Dry rubble boundary walls enclose the property. Remains of a threshing mill survive to the south-west.

This is an unusually complete survival of a traditional Orkney longhouse, with living accommodation and integral byre. The height of the skews suggests that the flagstone roofs may originally have been turf-thatched for additional waterproofing and insulation. The present roof, with flagstones exposed, is overseamed: large flagstones were laid onto timber rafters with their seams covered by smaller, slimmer overseamers, and joints subsequently sealed with lime mortar or, latterly, cement. The byre roof is an especially good example, with the joints between its row of aisin stones at the wallhead themselves underseamed to throw runoff rainwater away from the building. Window openings may have been enlarged in the later 19th century, as they appear large compared with other longhouses. Records for the apportionment of common sheep on the island in 1893 show that John Tulloch, the then occupier, was allocated 25 sheep.