Building record MHG52958 - John O' Groats House Hotel, John O' Groats

Designed and built by Thomas Sinclair, the then owner of Duncansby Estate. Ragbag baronial with octagonal tower. The tower has a crow-stepped gable dormer on each face <1>.

The original building is an attractive late 19th century 3-bay structure with an imposing octagonal tower on the eastern gable. Crow-stepped gable dormers break the wall heads on all three bays and on each face of the tower. The building has the appearance of being extended to the west in-keeping with the style of the core structure with a further 2-bays with matching dormers and a crow-stepped gable. Later extensions in the 1960's have served to mask the core structure on all sides; a crenellated flat roofed extension which attempts to mirror the octagonal tower has been added to the north elevation; an unattractive extension with flat roof, again apparently attempting to mirror the octagonal tower, has been added to the eastern elevation; and a large north-south aligned extension adjoins the western gable and part of the southern elevation further obscuring the original building. The hotel is no longer used as such and is starting to show signs of dereliction; herris fencing restricts access to the body of the building <2>.

Application for the renovation and extension of the hotel as part of a larger leisure development approved. See photographs of hotel taken Feb 2013 with 1960's unsympathetic extensions removed and extension to north. <3>