Swinster is a Grade B listed building in the Shetland Islands local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 26 March 1997. Enclosure.

Swinster

WRENN ID
rough-baluster-elm
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Shetland Islands
Constituency
Orkney and Shetland MP: Mr Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
26 March 1997
Type
Enclosure
OS grid reference
HU 443 722
Coordinates
60.43141, -1.19647
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Swinster is a later 19th-century square pony pound, featuring harl pointed rubble walls with stugged sandstone dressings and raised wallheads at the corners. The northwest elevation is symmetrical, with an entrance gate located at the center. On the southwest elevation, there is a single doorway positioned towards the outer right.

Inside, the main enclosure is divided by a rubble wall that runs from the center of the northwest to the southeast elevations, enclosing the northeast side of a passage that leads to a four-chamber square inner enclosure made of battered rubble walls, with gates grouped at the center. The inner wallhead and cross walls indicate where a near-continuous mono pitch roof once existed, but this has since been removed in 1996. A modern flat-roofed shed has been constructed in the western corner.

Local climate

Swinster sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,140 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 4 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 98% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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