Wall And Gate-Piers, The Laundry House, Melsetter, Hoy

The Laundry House is a probably late 18th-century building on Hoy, remodelled between 1898 and 1900 by W R Lethaby. Originally a pair of semi-detached cottages, it is now a single house. It is a single storey with an attic, and has a rectangular plan. The building’s distinguishing features are its prominent chimney stacks, with deep coping that tapers towards the top, and its low, wide attic windows. The exterior is largely harled with sandstone dressings. Low, harled walls flank the entrances to the principal elevation. Coped gables top the structure.

The south (principal) elevation has seven bays, representing the original four-bay cottage on the left and the three-bay cottage on the right. A central, architraved entrance gives access to the right-hand cottage, with a boarded timber door and a five-light rectangular fanlight above. Flanking this entrance are further architraved windows. A low, wide attic window sits above the right-hand bay. The former four-bay cottage to the left has an entrance with a boarded timber door, a window to the left, and two windows to the right. Another low, wide attic window is situated in the outer left bay, and there is a window between the two bays to the right. An outhouse, built into the base of the steps leading to the adjacent barn, “The Hall,” projects to the far left; it has a boarded timber door and a small window on its return side.

The north elevation presents four irregularly placed ground-floor windows, with the two on the right being wider. An architraved owl hole is positioned at the upper level between the second and third windows from the left. An outhouse, integrated into the base of steps leading to the adjacent barn, adjoins the north side, with a boarded timber door.

The east elevation features a window on the right at ground floor level, and an attic window on the right of the gable.

The west elevation has a blank gable end, adjoining steps that lead to a former barn containing an outhouse.

The building has 12-light timber sash and case windows, along with smaller multi-pane casements. The roof is covered in stone slates. There are gablehead stacks at either end (east and west), and a ridge stack, all constructed from sandstone with a band course topped by deep, tapered coping and round cans.

The interior has been largely modernised and is fairly plain.

To the north, a slightly sunken, rectangular-plan stone-flagged yard is enclosed by a rubble wall with rounded coping. Steps, with parapet walls, lead up to the land to the north at the west end. A section of the cartshed wall from the former steading projects to the right, and provides an entrance to the cartshed itself. A short section of coped rubble wall, featuring a full-height gateway with a boarded timber gate, is located to the east of the yard.

A short length of coped rubble wall adjoins the southeast corner of the former pair of cottages, connecting to a pair of coursed rubble gatepiers in line with the east entrance to the courtyard of Melsetter House. The gatepiers have a circular plan, conical rubble coping, and are topped with ball finials. A curved section of wall, adjoining the section to the south, connects to the walled garden.