Westburn, Longhope, Hoy

Westburn, Longhope, Hoy

A former custom house dating to circa 1840, with a minor single-storey addition to the northwest added in the early 20th century. The building is now divided into two houses.

The main structure is two storeys with a U-shaped plan, presenting a symmetrical seven-bay principal elevation to the northeast with flanking gable ends. The northwest elevation features a small single-storey addition. The principal and gable end elevations are built of coursed rubble with droved sandstone quoins at the arrises; the southwest ends of the wings and the northwest elevation are harled. The smaller northwest addition has architraved openings. Gables throughout are coped.

The principal northeast elevation is symmetrically arranged with seven bays, with paired bays to the slightly advanced flanking gable ends. A central entrance is reached by steps and is sheltered by a flat-roofed canopy supported by flanking pairs of concrete columns with drum capitals. A segmental arch above is inscribed "OLD CUSTOM HOUSE". Lion statues flank the roof, all likely dating to the 1930s. The doorway features a four-panel timber door with a six-light rectangular fanlight. A window sits above the entrance, with one to each floor of the flanking bays, though several have been blocked: those to the left bay of the first floor to each gable end, and that to the right of the ground floor of the right gable end.

The southeast elevation is symmetrically arranged with three bays. A central entrance is sheltered by a later gabled timber porch, with a window above and windows to each floor of the flanking bays.

The northwest elevation shows the single-storey early 20th-century addition projecting at its centre, with an architraved window to the right. An entrance to the left of the left return has a plain timber door with a rectangular fanlight. To the right of the right return is another entrance with a plain timber door and rectangular fanlight, with a small window to the outer right. A window to the first floor of the main block sits set back to accommodate the addition, with flanking windows to each floor.

The southwest elevation displays flanking projecting gable ends to the wings. The left gable end has two windows to its ground floor and one to the right of its first floor. The right return features a former entrance now converted to a window, with a narrow window to the outer right extending through both ground and first floors. A window sits to the left of the ground floor of the right gable end, with an entrance to the left of the left return featuring a boarded timber door, and a narrow window to the outer left on both floors. To the right of the central section is an entrance with a plain timber door set back, with a window to its right and a narrow window to the left at ground and first floors, plus a window to the outer left of the ground floor. The outline of a single-storey lean-to formerly stretching the entire width of the central section remains visible.

Windows are predominantly 12-pane and some 4-pane timber sash and case design. The centre of the principal elevation features a border-glazed fixed frame with stained glass outer panes, while narrow windows have 5-pane fixed frames. The main block has an asbestos slate roof with red ridge tiles; the single-storey addition has a stone slate roof. Each of the four gable ends of the main block is topped by a gablehead stack with a moulded cornice below concrete coping. A pair of similar ridge stacks tops the central section. The single-storey addition has a tall rendered gablehead stack extended vertically with two band courses and round cans.

A rubble boundary wall encloses the rectangular-plan plot to the southwest, northwest, and southeast. The plot is subdivided longitudinally by a rubble wall incorporating outbuildings of various dates immediately to the southeast of the house, one of which—featuring a pitched stone slate roof—is among the earliest structures on the site.