Crofthouse and Byre at Shetland Crofthouse Museum, Southvoe, Shetland

A mid-19th century Shetland croft, which was restored during the 1970s as the Shetland Crofthouse Museum using local building materials and traditional methods of construction. It consists of two interconnected, single-storey, rectangular-plan ranges running parallel to one another. The south range is the living accommodation with a byre (cattle shed) adjoining to the east. The north range is a barn with a circular grain-drying kiln adjoining to the west. The croft is located close to the sea at Southvoe in Dunrossness, in the southern part of Shetland Mainland.

The house, byre and barn are built of flagstone rubble with flagstones at the wallheads, thatched roofs and gable ends with wide skews. The straw thatch and turf under-lay is secured with ropes and weight-stones, and sits flush with the wallhead. There is a single thatched chimney stack on the ridge of the house and coped rubble stacks at the west gables of the house and the byre. The circular kiln has a turf roof covering.

There is a semi-oval kailyard (garden kitchen) to the south of the house. To the south of the kailyard is an oval-plan boat-roofed shed with battered flagstone walls and a timber door. Broadly rectangular enclosures with dry-stone walls extend to the south and north side of the croft complex.

The interior, seen in 2017, has been restored in the 1970s and fitted out to reflect a typical Shetland crofthouse of the mid to late 19th century. The door in the south elevation of the byre leads to a through passage between the living accommodation and the byre stalls, and then into the barn at the rear. The living accommodation consists of two rooms in a linear 'but and ben' configuration. The 'but' end at the east contains a peat fireplace and a timber box bed in one corner. The 'ben' end to the west has a larger box bed and a fireplace with a timber fire surround on the gable wall. The walls are plastered and painted white. The byre contains timber stalls and feeders. The barn has benches and farm machinery. The east end of the barn, added around 1900, was converted to a toilet with timber boarded walls during the 1970s.