Northern Outbuilding, Hillsgarth, Baliasta, Unst is a Grade C listed building in the Shetland Islands local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 18 October 1977. Manse.

Northern Outbuilding, Hillsgarth, Baliasta, Unst

WRENN ID
fallen-moulding-storm
Grade
C
Local Planning Authority
Shetland Islands
Constituency
Orkney and Shetland MP: Mr Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
18 October 1977
Type
Manse
OS grid reference
HP 609 092
Coordinates
60.76205, -0.88277
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

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

Description

The Northern Outbuilding at Hillsgarth in Baliasta, Unst, is an earlier 19th century, two-storey, three-bay symmetrical former manse with a rectangular double-pile plan and a lean-to wing at the rear. The building features harled walls with painted margins around the windows and corners, and projecting cills beneath the windows.

On the south elevation, which is the principal facade, there is a symmetrical arrangement with a single-storey gabled porch that has a ball finial, projecting from the center bay. The porch has border-glazed infill where the former entrance door was located, and a modern door on the east side. The windows are regularly spaced in the flanking bays and on the first floor.

The west elevation has windows at both the ground and first floor, located to the outer left of the principal elevation and to the right of the center at the end of the wing extending to the left.

The north (rear) elevation features a narrow window centered on the first floor, with part of the elevation obscured by the lean-to wing. There is a stair window to the left of center and regular fenestration in the outer left bay.

On the east elevation, there is a modern T-plan single-storey addition attached at ground level to the right, with windows at both the ground and first floor on the outer left.

The building has modern glazing throughout and a modern grey tiled piended roof. It includes coped four-flue droved ashlar stacks with circular cans piercing the east and west pitches, as well as a single-flue wallhead stack on the west skew of the wing.

The steading comprises two random rubble gabled buildings arranged at right angles, with stone slab roofs on the north end of the south range and on the north range. The south end of the south range has a blue slate roof, a rubble gablehead stack, and a vertically-boarded timber door on the south gable.

Surrounding the house are random rubble garden walls that enclose the property to the south and west, as well as a walled garden to the east.

Local climate

Northern Outbuilding, Hillsgarth, Baliasta, Unst sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,160 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, 4 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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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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