Smithy, South Ronaldsay

The Smithy in South Ronaldsay, built in 1862, is a single-storey, three-bay symmetrical house with a lower, single-storey, two-bay working smithy on the left, and a further single-storey, single-bay lean-to store on the outer left. To the northeast of the house is a late 19th century to early 20th century single-storey, five-bay barn with a lean-to, and to the east is an early 20th century single-storey barn with a hay loft. The building is constructed of harl-pointed random rubble.

The principal elevation of the house features a central boarded door with a letterbox fanlight, flanked by a window in each bay. The smithy has a boarded stable door in the bay to the right, with a window in the bay to the left and a small window between. The store has two-leaf boarded doors set in the top right.

The barn to the northeast has a door to the left with flanking windows, and a possible former door to the right window. There is also a door at the far right and a two-leaf boarded door leading to the lean-to. The barn to the east has a full-length boarded door on the central west elevation, with a first-floor loft window to the right and another first-floor loft window in the south gable, along with a central gable apex window.

The house features four-pane timber sash and case windows, with two evenly disposed rooflights on the principal pitch. The smithy has a two-pane timber-framed window and a six-pane window at the rear. The house has a traditional graded stone tiled roof, while the smithy has a massive Caithness stone slabbed roof. The remaining roof material is unseen. Both the house and smithy have corniced rubble gablehead stacks, and there are cast-iron rainwater goods. The northeast barn has a pitched roof of corrugated asbestos, and the north barn has a pitched roof with graded stone tiles.

Inside the house, there is a two-up-two-down arrangement with a central timber staircase. The downstairs features flag floors, plastered exterior walls, timber-framed and boarded internal partitions, open-beamed ceilings, a stone sink with a mains-fed cold water tap, a 'Columbian' stove from around 1900 in the west room, and a 1950s open fireplace in the east room. Upstairs, the ceilings are boarded, the coombs are visible, and the exterior walls are plastered on the hard, with timber-framed and boarded internal partitions. The smithy contains a wide, open, coal-fired furnace against the gabled wall, topped with an angled stone flag hood or lintel.