Ordale Steading including threshing mill, pigsty, lade and boundary walls, Baltasound, Unst

This is an early 19th-century steading located in Baltasound, Unst, arranged in a U-shape. It comprises a stable, bothy, and hayloft to the west, a former threshing mill to the east, and these are linked by a byre and barn. A single-story, monopitch pigsty sits to the south. The structure is built with harl-pointed rubble walls.

The south elevation presents a near-symmetrical appearance with three evenly spaced vertically-boarded timber doors leading into the barn and byre; the door on the left is flanked by rectangular windows. An entrance to the mill is accessed via a door with a window to the right, in the re-entrant angle. A vertically-boarded timber door, with a modified opening, is found on the left in the re-entrant angle with the western range. The south gables of the eastern and western ranges are blank. A monopitch, timber-framed addition with a rubble east wall extends from the gable of the eastern range.

The east elevation features a six-pane hoppered timber window on the outer right. Adjacent to the left is a cast-iron waterwheel with six spokes and a single ring, alongside a square axle and small square openings centred above at eaves level.

The north elevation is also near-symmetrical, incorporating square, vertically-boarded timber sheaf and hay hatches in the gableheads on the outer left and right sides. An additional hay hatch is located at ground level in the right gable. A four-bay link connects the gables, with square muck hatches – some now enlarged – in each bay.

The steading is roofed with purple-grey slate, incorporating cast-iron rooflights and timber ventilators at the ridges. Rubble skew copes are present, along with a single-flue gablehead stack on the south gable of the western range, topped with a circular can.

Inside the threshing mill, a vertically-boarded timber partition divides the north and south ends. The south end contains a ground-floor store with a grain loft above. A timber ladder provides access to the first floor, while the north end houses timber threshing machinery and cast-iron gearing within the east wall, alongside a timber hopper leading to a girnel (grain well) at ground level. The central link contains a cow byre on the east side and a byre with a stone flag floor and triangulated timber stalls on the west side, separated by a horizontally-boarded partition with a "stable" door to the barn. The western range accommodates a hay loft on the first floor to the north, a gig shed and stable to the south, with a bothy on the first floor accessible by an open timber staircase.

The pigsty has random rubble walls and a monopitch roof sloping to the south, featuring vertically-boarded timber doors on the north elevation, leading to drystone-walled runs.

A concrete mill lade from the south, partially survives along the east elevation.

Drystone walls enclose the former farmyard to the south and stackyard to the north.