Swartaback, Westray

Swartaback, Westray is a traditional single-storey croft of late 18th/early 19th-century origin with significant additions from the earlier-mid 19th century. The building comprises a long rectangular-plan range aligned east to west, with a small U-plan range and yard set to the rear (north) of the east end. The main structures include a house, barn, and wind threshing mill tower attached to the barn. Gabled porch additions extend from the domestic sections.

The buildings are constructed in coursed rubble with coped gables to the earlier-mid 19th-century sections on the west side. Roofs are underseamed flagstone, with a triangular overseamed flagstone roof to the north pitch of the barn. Gablehead stacks with band courses flank the earlier-mid 19th-century house to the west, though the cans are largely missing.

The south (entrance) elevation shows the original late 18th/early 19th-century section comprising a house and barn. The house, now roofless and ruinous, features a gabled porch with a window to the gable end and an entrance passage adjoining the house with entrances to both returns and a timber door. The barn entrance has been much enlarged with an inserted timber lintel and is fitted with a two-leaf boarded timber door. An open-sided yard set back to the outer right is formed with the gable end of a small byre opposite, set back approximately 1.5 metres to the east.

The later house and barn, built in two separate stages during the earlier-mid 19th century, adjoin to the left. The later house to the outer left features a gabled porch with a boarded timber door to the right of centre and a window to the left return, with flanking windows set back. The barn sits slightly set back to the right, with a flat-topped rectangular-plan wind threshing mill tower projecting to the right. A rectangular-plan recess is set to the centre, with an entrance immediately to its right flanked by cheek walls—that to the left formed by the right pier of the threshing tower. A large flagstone forms a roof just below eaves level, and a two-leaf boarded timber door (divided horizontally) provides access.

The north elevation displays the earlier-mid 19th-century house and barn to the right, with a later lean-to featuring a corrugated-iron roof extending across most of the barn width to the left. A blocked window and entrance are visible, with the barn entrance set back to the left within. The rear wall of the original late 18th/early 19th-century house adjoins to the left. A late 19th-century outbuilding projects at right angles from this section, with its entrance to the right of the right return (the wall partially fallen away on either side). A later lean-to extends across most of this gable end and projects to the right. Two small byres project immediately to the left with a slightly lower roof to that on the right, and a muck hole is visible at the base of that to the left. A small lean-to dry closet, part of the addition, is set back to the left return.

The east elevation shows the gable end of a byre projecting to the right with a boarded timber door entrance to the left return. The side wall of two small byre sections adjoins set back to the left, with the gable end of the original barn set back opposite on the far side of the yard to the outer left.

The west elevation contains a window to the left of the gable end of the earlier-mid 19th-century house.

The yard comprises mainly small byres. The east elevation of the yard shows a short section to the left with that to the right set back and an entrance to the left. The north elevation has an entrance to the right. The west elevation features an entrance with a boarded timber door to the right and a blocked entrance to the left.

Windows are largely boarded up or missing throughout. Stone internal partition walls remain in the original house. Stone slab stall divisions are present in some of the byre buildings, though other sections were not inspected as of 2000.