Lighthouse Keepers' Houses, Grunay, Out Skerries

The Lighthouse Keepers' Houses at Grunay, Out Skerries, were likely designed by David and Thomas Stevenson and built between 1857 and 1858. The building served as accommodation for lighthouse keepers, and originally comprised a single-storey, five-bay centrepiece with its principal elevation facing east. This central block was formerly flanked by lower, symmetrically-disposed L-shaped wings that projected to the outer left and right; the northern wing has since been demolished. The walls are harled, with dressings in droved sandstone ashlar. They include a base course, projecting eaves course, and a blocking course above. Corners, doors, and windows are margined with projecting sills.

The east elevation features a two-leaf vertically-boarded timber and glazed entrance door with a four-pane fanlight in the centre bay of the symmetrical centrepiece. Regular fenestration is seen in the flanking bays. Vertically-boarded timber doors are located in each bay of the recessed and stepping back northern jamb of the south wing, and a regularly-fenestrated single bay of the south wing is advanced on the outer left. The south elevation has a single window to the left of the centre. The west (rear) elevation is asymmetrical, with a four-bay centrepiece (grouped 3-1) and an adjoining two-bay south wing to the right. Windows on the south wing include a six-pane timber fixed-light and a timber sash and case window with plate glass.

The north elevation is also asymmetrical, with an off-set, vertically-boarded timber door positioned to the right of the centre. Predominantly, the windows are 12-pane timber sash and case. The building is topped with a flat roof, pierced along the centreline of the centrepiece by two groups of ashlar stacks – one group containing two stacks, and the other containing four, each featuring a boldly-corniced tapered shaft and a circular can. Three evenly-spaced, matching wallhead stacks are present on the south elevation.

The interior includes a flagged entrance hall and timber fittings throughout, such as four-panel doors, panelled shutters, plain chimneypieces with cast-iron inserts, and plaster cornices to the principal rooms. Cast-iron ranges are located in the south room of the centrepiece and the east room of the south wing.

Three slate water tanks, with brick bases, are located adjacent to the building; two are positioned to the left and right of the centre of the east and west elevations respectively, and one is in the re-entrant angle of the south wing. A fluted cast-iron plinth originally supported a sundial; this sundial was removed in 1998 and was situated to the west of the accommodation block. A roughly square walled garden, enclosed by a random rubble wall with a droved ashlar doorway in the centre of the east wall, is located to the west of the accommodation block.