Holland Farm (Canmore ID 2868) is located at NGR HY 48835 51537, close to the centre of Papa Westray, standing at the junction of Central Road and School Road. The majority of the buildings at Holland Farm are designated as Grade B Listed Buildings.
The site was visited as part of the project launch in Papa Westray during February 2024 and recording was undertaken by the ORCA team and local volunteers in October 2024.
Historical background
Holland stands in the centre of the island and its name is derived from Old Norse haey, and -land meaning “high-land”.
The original Holland House stood about 400m from the present house (built 1814), on the “Knowe of Old Holland”. The sixth laird, George (d.1840), was the first to make agricultural improvements following the collapse of kelp prices in the 1820s. His son, Thomas, made Holland and Brough model farms as well as other improvements.
Building Survey
The buildings at Holland Farm are numerous and cover a significant area. There are plans showing the farm layout in 1844 and 1920 which show that a number of buildings have been demolished or added since 1814 and that most of the buildings have varied in use over time.
Though the survey undertaken in 2024 was extensive, the description below focuses on the structures shown on the 1844 plan, the earliest plan we currently have. One notable aspect in the large number of dwellings and domestic buildings associated with the farm, emphasising the labour-intensive nature of farming at this time.
Holland House (B3) comprises a main block (south wing) and a north wing, both two stories with an attic. A single story service wing adjoins the south wing and there is a lean-to against the north gable of the north wing. The building is harled throughout with crow-stepped gables and sash and case windows.
An interesting feature of this building is the chimney in the west gable of the service wing is significantly taller than any of the other examples at Holland House. This has clearly been heightened at a later date and this is usually undertaken to improve the draw of air through the system. In this instance, however, it is possible that the chimney has been heightened to avoid the smoke being expelled at the same height as the attic windows in the adjacent gable of the main block.
To the north of the service wing is another dwelling which is considered older than Holland House. The roadside (west) frontage that the doors and windows have been altered during its occupation. A lean-to has been added to the north side and structures that formed part of the rear of the dwelling have been partially demolished in the past.
Along School Road, to the north of Holland House, are two structures which also probably pre-date the 1814-dwelling. One of these is a former bothy (B2) and the other is another dwelling (B1). Both building have a first floor which is accessed via an external staircase.
By the 1920s, the bothy was in use as a tattie store, and the ground floor of the house was used as a diary with its first floor being a meal loft and store. Though this change in use is reflected in modifications to the buildings, the architecture retains elements reflecting their original use, particularly the former house (B1).
On the west side of Central Road is a single structure (B4) which once formed a pair of dwellings. Both houses are single storey structures with wide chimneys at each gable and in the dividing wall between the two.
The building later became a smithy, joiner’s workshop and iron house resulting in significant modifications to the frontage though the rear of the building retain much of their original, domestic character. The interiors now reflect the industrial use of the building.
Further to the west, is a small building (B5) which is potentially one of the oldest surviving buildings at Holland. The 1884 plan shows this to be a stable and it is later recorded as being a staigy (stallion) house.
Local tradition recalls this as the kitchen of a former farm called Manavel, and there is a fireplace inside the building at the north end. The exterior and the surviving windows do have a domestic character though the threshold of the doorway reflects its later use. Cobbles form the floor surface, rather than the usual stone flags, as these provide a better surface for hooves particularly where the surface is sloped.
Opposite this building is a long, two storey structure, the New Barns (B6), which comprised barn with grain lofts above. The building has a central, arched doorway in the south-facing elevation, along with three smaller ground floor doorway and two first floor-doorways at the west end which were used to load and unload the grain loft.
The grain loft could also be accessed via an external staircase against the east gable. Butting against the north-facing elevation at the west end is a circular structure (B7) which contain a horse mill. Harnessed horses would walk in a circle turning a shaft that would power milling machinery inside the New Barns.
The circular horse mill building (B7) and internal roof timbers. (📷 ORCA)
Behind the New Barns and horse mill is the miller’s house (B13). This was later used as a byre for sick cattle and is now ruinous. Little of the exterior and interior features are discernible but the gable ends were seen to have a curved aspect to them.
To the west of the miller’s house is the former threshing barn (B10) with a corn-drying kiln at its north end. Though the roof has been replaced and a number of doorways have been modified the building retains much of its original character including an external doorway at first floor level that would have been used for the movement of sacks to-and-from a cart. The corn-drying kiln is a feature seen throughout Orkney. This example has the typical bee-hive shape and is joined to the threshing barn by a short passageway.
A long byre (B17) was originally located to the south of the New Barns. This structure has been replaced by larger, concrete byres. At the north end, however, a small section of stone walling has been incorporated into the modern structure and this may be a surviving remnant of the original byre. If so, this would have been the north-east corner of the byre and this could be seen to contain a blocked doorway with a stone lintel.
Bibliography
- Rendall, J. 2002. A Jar of Seed Corn: Portrait of an Island Farm. The Orcadian Ltd., Kirkwall.