Kailyard at Shetland Crofthouse Museum, Southvoe, Shetland

This is a mid-19th century Shetland croft, now the Shetland Crofthouse Museum, restored in the 1970s using local materials and traditional building techniques. It comprises two single-storey, rectangular ranges running alongside each other. The south range served as the living accommodation with a byre (cattle shed) attached to the east. A barn is located on the north range, with a circular grain-drying kiln adjoining to the west. The croft sits close to the sea at Southvoe, in the southern part of Shetland Mainland.

The building is constructed of flagstone rubble with flagstones at the wallheads. All ranges have thatched roofs, with wide skews on the gable ends. The straw thatch and turf underlay are secured with ropes and weight-stones, sitting flush with the wallhead. A single thatched chimney stack rises from the ridge of the house, while coped rubble stacks are present at the west gables of both the house and the byre. The circular kiln is covered by a turf roof.

A semi-oval kailyard (kitchen garden) is positioned to the south of the house. Further south is an oval-plan, boat-roofed shed with battered flagstone walls and a timber door. Rectangular enclosures defined by dry-stone walls extend south and north of the croft.

The interior, as seen in 2017, reflects a typical Shetland crofthouse from the mid to late 19th century, having been restored in the 1970s. A doorway in the south elevation of the byre leads to a passage that connects the living accommodation to the byre stalls and then into the barn at the rear. The living accommodation is arranged in a linear 'but and ben' configuration, featuring a peat fireplace and a timber box bed in the 'but' end (east), and a larger box bed and a fireplace with a timber fire surround in the 'ben' end (west). Walls are plastered and painted white. The byre contains timber stalls and feeders, while the barn includes benches and farm machinery. An addition to the east end of the barn, dating from around 1900, was converted into a toilet with timber boarded walls during the 1970s.