Farm House And Cottage, Farmsteading, Belmont House, Unst

Farm House and Cottage, Farmsteading, Belmont House, Unst

A Palladian laird's house of circa 1777 with an early 19th century addition, comprising a 2-storey principal block with attic over a concealed basement. The main house is a 3-bay composition with flanking quadrant walls curving forward to enclose a terrace to the south and linking to a mirrored pair of square single-storey pavilions. A 2-storey, 2-bay addition is centred to the east side of the principal block. The walls are harl-pointed rubble with stugged and droved dressings and margins, topped with an eaves cornice and margined windows framing the principal elevation.

The south (principal) elevation is symmetrical, featuring a margined door surround with superimposed architrave and a dentilled cornice over the lintel, supported by scrolled consoles. A concrete base of a canted glazed timber porch (circa 1900) now fronts the doorpiece, which shows raggles of former porches. The flanking bays have regular fenestration with keystones to first floor windows, including a Venetian window in the centre bay. A round-arched niche with bracketed cill, centred above in an open pediment, crowns the elevation.

The east elevation contains the 2-storey addition advanced at centre with narrow windows in the left bay and a single window at first floor in the right bay. The single bay to the east has regular fenestration. A lean-to at ground level to the north side has a vertically-boarded timber door and 4-pane timber sash and case windows in the right and left bays, with a narrow window at first floor in the right bay only.

The north (rear) elevation is near-symmetrical, with stair windows to lower and upper landings in the centre bay. A piend-roofed single storey rendered brick double-doored porch, offset to left of centre, is fronted by regular fenestration in the outer bays.

The west elevation is a 2-bay composition with windows at first floor only.

The quadrant links are brick-coped, harl-pointed and lined rubble walls curving forward from the principal block to meet the pavilions. The pavilions themselves form a mirrored pair of square-plan, single-storey, single-bay wings flanking the south terrace. Each has an entrance door to the terrace elevation and margined windows to the south elevations, with a small lean-to to the rear of the west pavilion and a large shallow-roofed concrete barn to the rear of the east pavilion.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows are employed throughout, with 4-pane examples in the narrow windows of the addition. Grey slate roofs are piended to the addition and pyramidal to the pavilions. Ashlar skew-copes top the principal block, while rubble gablehead stacks, margined at corners and corniced with circular cans, rise from the roofline. Harl-pointed rubble shouldered wallhead stacks centre the rear elevations, with stone copes and circular cans.

The interior, though partially ruinous as of 1997, retains most fixtures and fittings. A glazed and panelled inner entrance door accesses the ground floor, which contains 4-panel timber doors and plain bold plaster cornices. Wall presses in the entrance vestibule interlock with those in the dining room to the west and kitchen to the east. A stone range recess occupies the east wall of the kitchen. The dining room features panelled walls with a dado rail, oak-grained architraves and fielded-panel doors, and a black slate chimneypiece with an Art Nouveau cast-iron insert to the west wall. A semicircular arch with keystone leads from the vestibule to the stairhall, where a timber stair with turned spindles rises in an apsidal recess to the first and second floors. The handrail terminates at ground floor around a floral boss above a fluted timber newel. A 2-leaf flush-beaded and panelled timber rear door, now within the porch, has glazed uppers.

A full-depth drawing room occupies the west side at first floor, with a 6-panel fielded timber door centred in the east wall and bold egg and dart architrave. Fielded panels cover the dado and window aprons. A classical timber chimneypiece to the west wall comprises an egg and dart surround to a stone fireplace flanked by fluted pilasters rising to a swagged frieze and corniced shelf. A dentilled plaster cornice rings the coved ceiling with a foliate circular rose at the centre. A writing room is centred to the south at first floor, positioned behind the Venetian window, with timber shelves to the north wall and a panelled door with geometric glazing to the centre. A plain cornice and black slate chimneypiece with cast-iron insert feature in the northeast room. The first floor room in the east addition has vertically-boarded timber wainscoting. Two-panel timber doors serve the upper landing, with a wooden peg rail to the timber south wall. The east pavilion has vertically-boarded timber lining and a timber chimneypiece with cast-iron insert to the west wall, with a steep enclosed attic ladder to the left of the entrance door.

The terrace walls and gatepiers linking the pavilions comprise a low harl-pointed and lined rubble wall with a slabbed cope, stepping up at the centre to ashlar gatepiers with V-jointed rustication to square shafts and corniced caps (finials now missing as of 1997).

A formal arrangement of rubble-walled enclosures extends south of the house. A square enclosure centred to the south of the terrace features ball-finialled square stugged gatepiers centring the low slab-coped south wall, with stugged ashlar gateways at the east and west walls accessing further enclosures. The enclosure to the west contains a semicircular niche at the centre of its west wall. An avenue leading south to the shore, aligned with the centre of the house, is interrupted by an intermediate gateway comprising square rubble piers with ashlar pyramidal caps. The avenue terminates to the south with matching gatepiers flanked by quadrants connecting to the south boundary wall.

The farm cottage and steading form a symmetrical U-plan arrangement aligned to the north of the house, comprising a single-storey and attic farmhouse flanked by single-storey barns and single-storey and attic barns. The harled L-plan farmhouse has a symmetrical south elevation centred with a gabled porch featuring a vertically-boarded and glazed timber door, 4-pane timber sash and case windows in the flanking bays, and gabled timber dormers breaking the eaves in the outer bays. A lean-to wing extends to the west, with a dormered wing to the rear. Harled and coped walls curve forward to the south to enclose the frontage with gatepiers at centre. Purple-grey slate roofs top the structure, with rubble gablehead stacks coped with circular cans. The harled single-storey ranges flanking the farmhouse step up to the south into single-storey and attic ranges. The east range contains a bothy at upper floor level, while the west range has a hay loft with a dormered loading door at upper floor. A rough rubble wall with pyramidal-capped gatepiers, centred to the south on the farmyard and Belmont House, encloses the arrangement.

A single-storey, 3-bay symmetrical rubble trading booth, now roofless, is integral with the south boundary wall. An entrance door is centred in the north wall with ventilators in the flanking bays, the left one enlarged. Ventilators appear in the south elevation, and a small square window is cut into the east gablehead.