Lighthouse Shore Station, Burrafirth, Unst

Lighthouse Shore Station, Burrafirth, Unst

This lighthouse shore station complex dates from 1856, with some later additions and alterations. The principal group crowns a bluff to the east, comprising an accommodation block with a cottage positioned at right angles to the northeast and enclosed by a wall. To the west of the bluff lies a narrow valley containing a slipway and store at the inlet to the north, a single-storey three-bay cottage to the south, and a walled garden bounding the west side with a water cistern on the hillside above.

The accommodation block is a symmetrical two-storey seven-bay building with flanking single-storey, single-bay wings. It has harled and whitewashed brick walls with stone dressings, including a base course, eaves course with blocking course above, projecting cills to windows, and long and short quoins to windows, doors, and corners.

The principal west elevation is nearly symmetrical, featuring a window at ground level in the centre bay, two-leaf vertically-boarded timber doors with three-pane fanlights in the flanking bays, and regular fenestration in the outer bays and at first floor (with the centre window blind). A window in the right wing was altered from a door. The south elevation shows a single-storey wing advanced at ground level with a door to the right of centre and a window to the outer left, with a blank south wall of the central block rising behind. The rear east elevation is symmetrical, with infilled doors at the centre flanked by windows and full-height projections containing concrete stairs, plus windows at each floor to the outer left and right. The north elevation mirrors the south elevation.

The building predominantly features four-pane timber sash and case windows, though some bays to the right of centre on the principal front have modern glazing. The flat roofs to the principal block and wings are topped by four-flue stacks asymmetrically disposed along the centre line, harled and coped with circular cans.

The cottage is a single-storey three-bay structure of rectangular plan with harled walls, base and eaves courses, and projecting cills to windows. Its principal north elevation is symmetrical, with a two-leaf vertically-boarded timber door with three-pane fanlight in the centre bay and twelve-pane timber sash and case windows in the flanking bays. The rear south elevation has three bays with twelve-pane timber sash and case windows in the centre and left bays, while the right bay is obscured by a flat-roofed addition. The roof is purple-grey slate with concrete skew-copes and truncated gablehead stacks.

The principal buildings are enclosed to the south, west, and north by a whitewashed rubble wall with semicircular cope. The west wall is stepped up at the ends and returns to steel pedestrian gates in both the north and south walls. The south wall terminates to the east at a flat-roofed boilerhouse with a tall single-flue stack.

A fluted cast-iron base stands to the north of the principal buildings, formerly supporting a sundial that was removed in 1997.

The south cottage is a single-storey three-bay structure of rectangular plan with whitewashed rubble walls. Its principal elevation faces east, with a vertically-boarded timber door offset to the left of centre and ten-pane timber casements in the flanking bays. The side and rear elevations are blank. It has a tarred roof with a coped stone stack to the south gable. Concrete steps adjoin the south gable, curving north and ascending to meet the approach road to the principal buildings.

The store is a two-bay vertically-boarded timber building with a stone base, positioned at the south end of the slipway. It features a vertically-boarded timber door in the right bay and a twelve-pane timber fixed-light in the left bay of the southeast elevation, with a four-pane timber fixed-light to the northeast gable. A random rubble ruin (formerly gabled) adjoins the southwest gable, with further rubble ruins to the southwest. The store has a tarred roof with a timber ventilator at the ridge.

The slipway is constructed of random rubble, extending north along the rock face, with stone steps to the beach at its south end. A cast-iron derrick at the north end comprises a pivoting central mast with boom and winch supported by triangulated stays to the west.

The water cistern is a harl-pointed rubble structure of rectangular plan with a curved roof and vertically-boarded timber hatch in the east end.

Boundary walls of random rubble with semicircular rubble cope circumvent the bluff and clasp the cottage at the southwest corner. A random rubble retaining wall runs to the northeast side of the approach road, terminated at its foot by square stugged ashlar gatepiers with stone caps. A long, irregularly-shaped walled garden extends to the west of the road, terminated to the north by the slipway store.