Building record MHG14889 - C18 farmhouse - Pennyland, Thurso

A later C18 house with associated farm steadings (with components of various dates - see MHG42716).

The building complex was photographed as part of the Survey of buildings in Thurso, Caithness by the Scottish National Buildings Record in October 1961.

The house and steading were listed at category B in 1975.

This courtyard farmstead with farmhouse is built of roughly coursed flagstone, with concrete or flagstone floors, and slate or corrugated asbestos roofs. It comprises a barn with granary above, a cart shed, a turnip store, a stalled byre with a c.1920's overhead trolley system running centrally along its length, stores, a dairy and three cottages. The 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map indicate a waterwheel attached to the external (E) wall of the barn, providing power for a threshing mill, and this was fed by a lade from a dam located a short distance to the S (Caithness 1877 and 1907, sheet v). A gap in the W provides access into the courtyard, and in the NE a castellated wall links the barn to the farmhouse. Dating from c.1780, the farmhouse has two storeys with attic dormers, a gabled porch on the E, and its walls are rendered and whitewashed. It is the birthplace of Sir William Alexander Smith, founder of the Boys' Brigade. The site was visited in 1993 and 2000.
Information from RCAHMS (ARG), 17 July 2006

The house and steading were subject to listing re-assessment by Historic Scotland in 2015. It was recommended that the category be changed from B to C. <1>

The listing category was changed to C in August 2015 and the listing address and description were updated. The listing now specifically includes the former threshing mill, cottages and boundary walls and excludes the former byre and stable to the south, and the extension to the house to the north dating to around 2009. <2>