Sundial, Lunna House, Lunna Ness, Shetland North, Shetland Islands

Description

Later 17th century, with early 18th and 20th century additions. Laird?s house of irregular plan comprising T-plan original core of 2-storey and attic 3-bay haa with single storey kitchen wing projecting NE at centre of rear elevation, early 18th century 2-storey jamb oriented NE-SW abutting NW gable of haa with 2-storey early 20th century porch in S re-entrant angle; 2-storey 3-bay wing of 1910 projecting NW from early 18th century jamb. Harled walls with painted droved ashlar and concrete margins.

LATER 17TH CENTURY RANGE: SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; regular fenestration at ground and 1st floors in bay to outer right; blank bay at centre; left bay obscured by 2-storey parapetted semi-octagonal entrance porch with full-height opening to centre face containing modern glazing over modern entrance door; 2-light piend-roofed slate-hung timber dormers with 12-pane timber sash and case glazing to roof pitch over outer bays.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: gabled kitchen wing advanced at centre, blank gable end with tall square single flue stack; 2-bay side elevations with 4-pane timber glazing and entrance door to NW side. Rear elevation of haa rising behind; single window at ground to right, windows flanking kitchen roof at 1st floor with additional small window to right of ridge; piend-roofed slate-hung timber dormer to principal pitch centred over kitchen wing.

SE GABLE: blank.

EARLY 18TH CENTURY RANGE: SW GABLE: 2-bay gable with blind windows at ground and 1st floors in bay to left, ground floor window containing carved panel of 1707; bowed window openings to ground and 1st floor in bay to right.

NW ELEVATION: elevation framed by flying buttresses with square shafts (angled to elevation) capped by beach-stone finials on domical bases. Regular fenestration at ground and 1st floors in bays to outer left and right; 1st floor windows breaking eaves with catslide dormerheads. 20th century wing projecting to right of centre, irregularly fenestrated bay adjacent to left with piend-roofed slate-hung canted timber dormer to roof pitch above.

SE ELEVATION: centre obscured by early building and entrance porch; regularly fenestrated bay adjacent to left advanced and breaking eaves as parapetted dormerhead. Large (now truncated) wallhead stack breaking eaves to right of early building.

NE GABLE: 2-bay gable, blank at ground, with regularly fenestrated 1st floor.

EARLY 20TH CENTURY RANGE: SW ELEVATION: asymmetrical, regularly fenestrated centre bay advanced with crenellated parapet breaking eaves; regular fenestration in bay to left, bipartite windows at ground and 1st floors in bay to right.

NW GABLE: windows at ground in bay to left and at 1st floor in bay to right.

NE ELEVATION: asymmetrical, window at 1st floor only in centre bay, regular fenestration in bay to left and blank bay to right.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case glazing. Purple-grey slate roofs to principal pitches and dormers, stone slab roof to kitchen wing. Harled apex stacks to gables of each range, all with sandstone ashlar and concrete copes, plain and decorative circular cans. Harled crowsteps to gables, some with bracketted skewputts.

INTERIOR: features from 18th, 19th and 20th centuries surviving including 6-panel doors with fielded panelling, herringbone timber lining and contemporary chimneypiece to early 20th century wing, vertically-boarded timber lining to kitchen, timber principal staircase with ball-finialled newels and turned spindles, drawing room at 1st floor of early 18th century range; post-war chimneypiece to S gable, deeply-coved plaster ceiling with unusual raised centre.

GARDEN AND RETAINING WALLS, GATEPIERS AND OUTBUILDING: northern approach to house lined by drystone walls splayed to E at house; series of drystone walls (retaining to E and S) forming roughly heart-shaped enclosure around house; line of cope stones delineating terrace to SW. Droved ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps accessing avenue to SW; rough gatepiers with beach-stone finials at paired gateways to SE accessing series of gardens enclosed by drystone walls, garden to N containing rubble outbuilding with mono-pitch roof (formerly stone slab) sloping to W.

SUNDIAL: situated within garden to S, square base to baluster-like shaft supporting corniced head.

AVENUE WALLS: ruinous remains of low drystone walls lining avenue to SW of house, leading downhill on axis with folly and cottage to W gates.

Statement of Interest

A Group with Lunna Fishing Booth, Folly, Former Schoolhouse, Gothick Cottage, Lunna Harbour, St Margaret's Kirk, Steading, Walled Garden, and West Gates. The earliest owner of Lunna was Robert Hunter, Chamberlain of the Lordship of Zetland who died in 1695. The armorial panel on the S gable commemorates the marriage of Thomas Hunter and Grisella Bruce in 1707. The 8th Laird, Robert Bell Hunter, sold the house to John Bruce of Sumburgh in 1893. Although the house is perhaps most famous for its role in the 'Shetland Bus' operations from 1941, it was little occupied in the 20th century and came close to dereliction until a remarkable rescue by the Lindsay family in the 1960s. Lunna House has the best historic designed landscape in Shetland, the old approach to the Haa now forming the south west avenue focused on the west gates, Gothick cottage, and folly (see separate listings).

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