The North Haa, West Sandwick, Yell

The North Haa, West Sandwick, Yell

A laird's house of the 17th century, substantially remodelled around 1830 following an addition of circa 1770. The building comprises a symmetrical two-storey three-bay remodelling of the original 17th-century structure, connected by a central two-storey link to a two-storey house with attic storey and three bays to the south. This southern block, itself a classical remodelling of a later 18th-century house, is flanked to east and west by walls that connect to single-storey single-bay pedimented pavilions.

The walls are harled and lined rubble with droved sandstone ashlar margins and details, with projecting cills to the windows.

The principal south elevation is symmetrical and dominated by a projecting single-storey pedimented porch at its centre. The porch features a vertically-boarded timber door with plate glass fanlight set within a channelled ashlar surround, flanked by pilasters with rosettes, and crowned by an urn finial. Windows flank the outer bays at ground floor, while a round-arched window is centred at first floor with tripartite windows to the outer bays. The principal block is flanked by single-storey single-bay walls with glazed doors. Advancing further out are single-storey pavilions to right and left, each displaying Venetian windows and pediments with blind oculi and ball finials.

The east elevation shows a four-pane timber sash-and-case window to the link, recessed between blank gables of the north and south blocks. The north block's gable is advanced to the right, while the east pavilion's blank east wall advances to the left.

The north elevation is symmetrical, with a timber fixed-light window of triangulated glazing pattern set above an infilled door at ground floor. Windows occupy the flanking bays, with regular fenestration at first floor. A two-leaf latticed gate is set into a single-storey courtyard wall extending leftward. The blank rear elevation of the south block is recessed to the right.

The west elevation displays a two-bay gable of the south block advanced to the right, its ground floor obscured by a lean-to addition, with regular fenestration at first floor and an attic window in the gablehead. A four-pane timber sash-and-case window to the link is recessed to the left, with the blank gable of the north block at the outer left.

Windows throughout are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case, with four-pane examples to the link block and the lower right window of the north elevation. The north and south blocks have grey slate roofs with droved ashlar skew-copes and bracketed skewputts to the south block. The pavilions have modern metal roofs. Harled gablehead stacks serve the main blocks, heightened at the north block, all finished with concrete copes and circular cans. Octagonal single-flue wallhead stacks with circular cans serve the outer walls of the pavilions.

A roughly square formal garden lies to the south of the principal elevation, enclosed by harl-pointed rubble walls and adjoining the pavilions at east and west. Gates adjacent to the pavilions comprise square droved ashlar gatepiers with bases and corniced pyramidal caps, flanked by dwarf walls. Fleur-de-lys finialled railings survive to the west, while the ashlar-coped dwarf wall bounding the south side has had its railings removed, though cast-iron stanchions remain at the central gate.

A large walled garden encloses the north side of the house, extending east and west. Basket-arched openings pierce the walls linking the north elevations of the pavilions to this garden, with additional basket-arched openings in the south walls and centred in the north wall. The garden has rounded corners to the northeast and northwest. Within the walled garden, adjoining the north elevation of the north block, stands a harl-pointed rubble ashlar-coped dwarf wall in semicircular plan, with a gate at its north point comprising square droved ashlar gatepiers with bases and corniced pyramidal caps. Rubble and concrete steps stand to the east. An additional wall extends east from the east pavilion, enclosing a yard open to the east.

A pier lies nearby, built of coursed stugged sandstone with a slabbed carriageway and steps set into its west side at the south end.

The interior contains a late 18th-century timber staircase with simple balustrade in the south block, and a partly panelled southwest attic room with dentilled cornice.