Windhouse, Yell

Dated 1884. Farm comprising single storey and attic 3-bay house with low single storey wing to rear, closing S side of U-plan steading with threshing mill at NE corner and separate contemporary range aligned to W. Harl-pointed rubble walls with stugged sandstone ashlar dressing and details.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical, farmhouse advanced at centre with gabled porch projecting in centre bay comprising modern entrance door in S side with datestone to finialled gablehead above, and mullioned bipartite sidelights; 4-pane timber sash and case windows in left bay, modern window in right bay; symmetrical S gables of E and W ranges of steading recessed at left and right, each comprising window centred at ground with shouldered wallhead stack breaking eaves above; datestone to base of W stack.

W ELEVATION: asymmetrical, W range of steading bisected by courtyard entrance to right; wide doorway in pavilion-like S section to outer right; wide doorways to outer left and right of N section, latter with 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors and additional door adjacent to left; window to left in gable of house recessed at right.

N ELEVATION: asymmetrical, door offset to right of centre; door to outer left with loft door above breaking eaves in slate-hung dormer with pitched roof.

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical, blank, except for large cast-iron waterwheel to outer right; wheel by Harper & Co of Aberdeen with square axle mounted to E on substantial rubble pier; window to right in gable of house recessed at left.

COURTYARD: roughly cobbled courtyard bounded by symmetrical 3, 5, and 7-bay elevations to S, E, and N respectively; door lintel breaking eaves at in centre bay of low S elevation with windows in flanking bays; vertically-boarded timber door in centre bay of E elevation, square windows in flanking and penultimate bays to left and right, vertically-boarded timber doors in outer bays; vertically-boarded timber door in centre bay of N elevation, small rectangular windows below eaves in flanking bays.

Purple-grey slate roofs, piended at corners of steading; sandstone ashlar skew copes to house, N pitch sweeping down to low wallhead of rear wing. Stugged sandstone ashlar gablehead stacks to house with stone copes and circular cans.

W BARN: infilled window centring S elevation (now built up as gable) below shouldered former wallhead stack. Door to outer left in E elevation, variety of modern openings to right; corrugated-iron roof.