Inches, 14 Bell's Road, Lerwick

Dated 1872, this is a two-storey, three-bay, near-symmetrical villa of rectangular plan, with a single-storey service wing to the rear (north). The front elevation is built of stugged squared and snecked sandstone, while the side and rear elevations are harl-pointed (rough plaster over stone), all with polished ashlar dressings and details, with droved (angled) arrises. A base course and eaves cornice run along the building.

The south (principal) elevation features a six-panel, two-leaf timber entrance door with a plate glass fanlight above it. The doorpiece consists of pilasters with scrolled brackets flanking the lintel and supporting a cornice. Bipartite windows (windows divided into two lights) are positioned at ground and first floors in the left-hand bay. To the right, a two-storey, three-light canted bay window with a corniced lintel is present at ground level. Windows throughout have projecting cills and stop-chamfered arrises. The dressings around the windows are long and short, and detailing is used at corners.

The west elevation has narrow windows to the left of centre at ground level, with a modern single-storey conservatory projecting to the right. A narrow window is located at first floor to the right of centre.

The north (rear) elevation has a round-arched stair window centred at first floor level, and windows at ground and first floors in the flanking bays. A harled rubble service wing is advanced at ground level. The east elevation features a single window centred at first floor level.

Some original timber sash and case windows remain; plate glass is used on the principal front, while four- and six-pane windows are found on the side and rear elevations and within the service wing. The roof is a purple-grey slate piended platform roof, with a profiled cast-iron gutter along the principal elevation, and decorative cast-iron brattishing (decorative ironwork) with wrought-iron finials at the corners. Stugged sandstone wallhead stacks (chimneys) are centred on the side elevations, corniced and topped with octagonal and circular cans.

The interior retains original features including four-panel doors, panelled shutters, and plaster cornices. A timber staircase has decorative cast-iron balusters and a timber handrail, with a stained glass stair window bearing the date 1872.

Random rubble boundary walls enclose the property, with stugged and droved ashlar gatepiers having bases and cavetto-moulded caps topped with urns, centring the house to the south. Flanking quadrant walls with a saddleback cope terminate to the east with a cement-rendered and lined pier.

A cast-iron pump, located to the west of the house and set on a stugged ashlar plinth, was made by George Smith & Co of Sun Foundry Glasgow.