Seafield, Kantersted Road, Lerwick

Seafield is a classical villa built in 1833 and substantially altered and extended around 1900. It stands as a single and two-storey, five-bay asymmetrical house of rectangular plan, with a projecting two-storey wing centred at the rear.

The principal east-facing elevation is finished in droved sandstone ashlar and comprises an asymmetrical composition. At its centre is an advanced single-storey entrance hall and drawing room. The entrance door consists of a six-panel timber door with a round-arched plate glass fanlight, flanked by narrow plate glass timber sash and case windows. To the left are regularly fenestrated bays; to the right is a two-storey bay, followed by a two-storey bowed bay with tripartite windows at ground and first floors, and an outer bay with bipartite windows at both levels. A single-bay crenellated wall with a window extends to the left of the elevation.

The south elevation is the end of the principal front, featuring a bowed bay to the left with tripartite windows at ground and first floors, a single-storey end wall of the drawing room to the right, and the rubble rear wall of a former conservatory extending to the left.

The side and rear elevations are finished in harl-pointed stugged rubble with droved ashlar dressings. The west (rear) elevation is irregularly fenestrated, with blank sections to the right of centre, a projecting two-storey bathroom block at the centre, and a lean-to glazed timber porch in the re-entrant to the left. The north elevation centres a vertically-boarded timber door with a carved flower over the lintel, with a four-pane window to the left.

Windows are predominantly timber sash and case: the principal elevation features 12-pane examples, while the tripartite windows have curved 8-pane sidelights. Later additions include 2-pane upper sashes with plate glass lower sashes, and some modern glazing to the rear. Projecting cills run at window level throughout.

The roof is covered in purple-grey slate with cast-iron gutters, downpipes and hoppers. Stugged sandstone ashlar wallhead stacks rise from the north and west elevations, with a single flue stack at the south-east corner; all are coped with circular cans.

Internally, the entrance vestibule has a tiled floor and a two-panel inner door with a glazed upper section, sidelights, and a four-pane round-arched fanlight. A timber staircase with turned spindles rises from here. The drawing room, lit by a bow window to the east, contains a timber chimneypiece with a dentilled cornice. The bow-ended dining room features a grey marble chimneypiece, decorative plaster cornice, architraved windows and six-panel doors.

The steading forms a U-plan structure with harl-pointed random rubble walls and stugged and droved sandstone dressings. Its principal east-facing elevation is articulated by a two-storey tower with a three-pointed arch at ground level and a round-arched vertically-boarded timber door centred above at first-floor level. A row of flightholes sits over an alighting ledge below the eaves. Flanking two-bay ranges contain blind windows with evidence of 12-pane painted windows, except where infilled with cement render. The outer bays are slightly advanced, with modern alterations and a vehicle door inserted at the right. The north elevation features segmental-arched cart arches, one containing two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors, the other partially rubble-infilled. Roofing is varied, comprising corrugated sheeting, fishscale tiles and grey slate; the tower carries a bell-cast pyramidal slate roof with a wrought-iron weathervane. The courtyard elevations are regularly fenestrated, with cast-iron gutters and downpipes throughout.

The boundary and retaining walls are substantial features. A droved ashlar wall borders the drive to the east, surmounted by ashlar cope and cast-iron railing with fleur-de-lys finials. A gate at its centre has pineapple finials to its gatepiers; the wall terminates north and south at droved ashlar piers with pyramidal caps. A random rubble terrace wall centred by stone steps with nosings provides access to the entrance door. Ashlar-coped random rubble walls flank the entrance front, with round-arched gateways adjacent to the elevation and a vertically-boarded timber gate in the archway to the right. A flagged area to the west is bounded by a random rubble retaining wall with concrete cope. Droved ashlar gatepiers with bases and caps adjoin the steading at its south end, and similar piers at the shore to the east have bases and pyramidal caps.