Windhouse, Yell

Windhouse is a late 19th-century (dated 1884) farmstead comprising a farmhouse, a U-plan steading, a threshing mill, and a separate range. The farmhouse is a single-storey building with an attic, and a low single-storey wing extends to the rear, enclosing the south side of the steading. The buildings are constructed of harl-pointed rubble with stugged sandstone ashlar dressings and details.

The south (principal) elevation is symmetrical. The farmhouse is prominent in the centre, with a gabled porch projecting above a modern entrance door and datestone. Original four-pane timber sash and case windows are in the left bay, with a modern window replacing an original in the right bay. The symmetrical south gables of the east and west ranges of the steading are recessed to the left and right, each with a window at ground level and a shouldered wallhead stack breaking the eaves above. A datestone marks the base of the west stack.

The west elevation is asymmetrical, with the west range of the steading divided by a courtyard entrance to the right. A wide doorway is in the pavilion-like south section to the outer right, and wide doorways are to the outer left and right of the north section; the left door has vertically-boarded timber double doors and a separate door to the adjacent left. A window is set into the gable of the house, recessed to the right.

The north elevation is also asymmetrical, with a door offset to the right of centre and a door to the outer left. Above the left door is a loft door, set within a slate-hung dormer with a pitched roof.

The east elevation has a large cast-iron water wheel by Harper & Co of Aberdeen, with a square axle mounted on a substantial rubble pier. A window is located in the gable of the house, recessed to the left.

The courtyard is roughly cobbled and enclosed by symmetrical three, five, and seven-bay elevations to the south, east, and north respectively. The south elevation features a door lintel breaking the eaves in the centre bay, flanked by windows. A vertically-boarded timber door is in the centre of the east elevation, flanked by square windows and vertically-boarded timber doors in the outer bays. The north elevation has a vertically-boarded timber door in the centre bay, with small rectangular windows below the eaves in the flanking bays.

The roofs are covered in purple-grey slate, with piended corners on the steading. Sandstone ashlar skew copes are on the house, the north pitch sweeping down to the low wallhead of the rear wing. Stugged sandstone ashlar gablehead stacks are present on the house, finished with stone copes and circular cans.

A west barn has a filled-in window at the centre of the south elevation (now a gable) below a shouldered former wallhead stack. A door is on the east elevation’s outer left, with a variety of modern openings to the right, and covered by a corrugated-iron roof.