Tankerness House Museum, Broad Street, Kirkwall

Tankerness House Museum, Kirkwall

A complex of historic buildings on Broad Street, Kirkwall, spanning from the early 16th century to the 19th century. The site comprises interconnected ranges arranged around a square-plan courtyard, with an additional property (Number 41) absorbed into the museum in 1999.

The main complex consists of the East Range, North Range, West Range, and South Range. The East Range faces Broad Street as a two-storey, five-bay rectangular block with a narrow forestair to the north gable. The North Range is two storeys with an attic, a four-bay block presenting a three-bay gabled elevation to the street and a full-height, square-plan gabled stair tower to the outer right (east). The North Range was extended in 1574. The West and South Ranges form an L-plan, completing the courtyard with three irregular bays to each range. The West Range dates to circa 1722. The South Range was extended during the 18th and 19th centuries and remodelled circa 1820. All ranges are harled with sandstone ashlar dressings and chamfered reveals to dressed openings.

The North and East ranges are linked by a round-arched access gateway from Broad Street, which features a corbelled parapet bearing an armorial panel and the date 1574.

The East Range elevation to Broad Street contains a deep-set, part-glazed door at ground floor in the central bay with a small flanking window to the right, large windows in the remaining bays, and five regularly disposed windows at first-floor level. The rear (courtyard) elevation has a small central window at first floor and a window at ground floor in the outer left bay.

The North Range's Broad Street elevation features a two-bay gabled group to the right with a small ground-floor window set low and non-aligned windows at each floor above, plus a ground-floor and first-floor window in the right bay with a gablehead stack above. A boarded door with small flanking window occupies the left bay at ground floor, with a window at first-floor level above. The courtyard elevation has a boarded door at ground floor with an offset window at first floor beside the stair tower, a square block finial to the gablehead, and a three-bay group to the left with windows at each floor and a timber-panelled door at ground floor in the leftmost bay with a small window set close to the outer left angle and windows at each floor above.

The West Range's courtyard elevation contains two-leaf boarded doors in the central bay with a tall first-floor window above, and windows at ground and first-floor levels in the flanking bays. The garden elevation is irregular across eight bays, grouped 2-5-1, with tall first-floor windows and advanced flanking gabled groups. The central five-bay group has a part-glazed door at ground-floor level in the central bay with a window at first floor above, small windows at ground and first-floor levels in the right bay, and windows at each floor in the left bays. A two-bay group to the left has windows at each floor and a gablehead stack above, with a part-glazed door at ground floor and window at first floor in the right return. A single-bay group to the right has ground and first-floor windows set to the left with a gablehead stack above.

The South Range's courtyard elevation is irregular across three bays with windows at each floor offset to the left of centre, a ground-floor window to the right, a first-floor window to the outer right, and a small window at each floor in the outer left bay. The side elevation is also irregular across five bays, with a nepus gable over a two-bay group to the left of centre containing windows at each floor, two small attic windows, and a gablehead stack above. The remaining bays have non-aligned and single windows at various floor levels.

Windows throughout the complex display a variety of glazing patterns, including 6-, 12- and 18-pane timber sash and case windows. Roofs are traditional graded stone tiled with stone ridges. Gablehead and ridge stacks are harled and corniced. Stone skews and cavetto-moulded skewputts are present on the nepus gable. Skewputts to the stair tower bear the initials MGF and EK. The monogram IHS appears on the southeast skewputt of the West Range, and the initials IHS and MGF appear on the northeast skewputt of the West Range. Cast-iron rainwater goods are throughout.

The interiors have been remodelled to accommodate the museum, though rooms in the North Range from circa 1820 remain, as does 18th-century panelling in the West Range.

Number 41 is an 18th-century property with later alterations, abutting Tankerness House to the left (north). It is a two-storey, three-bay, symmetrical rectangular-plan house with a crowstepped gable. The principal elevation to Broad Street contains a part-glazed timber-panelled door at ground floor in the central bay with a window at first floor above, and windows at each floor in the flanking bays. The rear elevation features a small window to the right in a projection to the left of centre, a modern part-glazed door with a first-floor window in the right return, and two small windows at ground floor offset to the right with a tripartite window at first floor above. The side elevation has a ground-floor window set to the right with a gablehead stack above. The building has a full-height lean-to projection to the rear (west) and a chamfered southeast angle. Block cills mark the enlarged ground-floor windows. Windows are predominantly 12- and 20-pane timber sash and case. The roof is traditional graded stone tiled with stone ridge, harled and corniced gablehead stacks, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Number 41 was converted to a craft shop at ground level, with the upper floors unseen as of 1998.

High drystone rubble walls enclose a large rectangular-plan garden to the rear (west) of the complex.

The buildings were restored in 1968, with Number 41 absorbed into the museum in 1999.