Description

Completed 1901, large verandah added after 1920. Builder Aitken of Lerwick. Unusual tall, gabled 2-storey and attic, 3-bay house with large wrap around glazed verandah to S and W. Retains some decorative external timberwork and much original fine interior detail. Built for eminent physician Sir William Watson Cheyne, successor to Lord Lister in development of antiseptic surgery. Mass concrete construction. Projecting margins and mullions, roundheaded doorway. Crowstepped hall linked by verandah to NW corner.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: principal elevation to S with projecting gable at right, flat-roofed porch in re-entrant, incorporating timber door, decoratively-astragalled semicircular fanlight and flanking roundheaded lights, and flat-roofed verandah adjoining at left. Regular tripartite fenestration to ground and 1st floor, bipartite window to gablehead at right and 2 gabled dormer windows at left.

Full-width verandah projecting from ground floor of W elevation with tall gabled bay incorporating 4-light canted window at 1st floor right, and timber bargeboarding to dormerhead of decoratively-astragalled canted window at centre of long, low bay at left. N elevation with narrow courtyard flanked by projecting ranges, that to right gabled and that to left piended; decorative bargeboarding retained in set-back gablehead at left. Long range of single storey, piend-roofed offices at E.

Largely multi-pane sashes over taller vertical 2-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows; some decoratively astragalled windows; some modern glazing to S elevation. Grey slates with terracotta ridge tiles. Concrete ridge stacks with full complement of clay cans.

INTERIOR: fine little-altered interior, with largely timber lined walls and ceilings. Many fine decorative timber and cast iron fireplaces and early light fittings, architraved panelled timber doors, picture rails.

Encaustic tiled porch floor and part-glazed screen door with flanking lights and glazed fanlights lead to stairhall with timber dog-leg staircase with ball-finialled newels. Large living room with kingpost truss roof and fitted benches to canted-out window bay with tracery type astragals. Bedroom with diminutive broken pediment detail to simple corner hanging space. Kitchen with small range, full-height fitted cupboards and servant bell boxes. Washhouse with paired Belfast sinks on sturdy porcelain centre column.

HALL: principal S elevation to rectangular-plan, crowstepped hall linked to main building by verandah on deep concrete base with curved forestair at W. Simple interior with boarded timber dado and stage.

WALLED GARDEN AND GATEPIERS: high, flat-coped concrete walls, stepped in places, to rectangular-plan garden sited to W of Hall. Pair of square-section, ball-finialled gatepiers to W of Lodge.

Statement of Interest

Completed in 1901 for the eminent physician Sir William Watson Cheyne, Leagarth House is an unusually intact survival of an Edwardian country house. Prominently sited on raised ground overlooking the rocky shore at Wick of Houbie it is of a type and scale, particularly for its concrete construction, which is rare in the Shetland Isles. The predominantly timber-lined interior remains substantially unaltered and contains a wealth of high quality period detailing including cast iron fire surrounds and early light fittings.

Sir William Watson Cheyne was assistant and successor to Lord Lister in pioneering the development of antiseptic surgery, and he was the 1st Baronet of Leagarth (1852 - 1932). Sir William, who was also a member of parliament and Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland, retired to Leagarth in 1920 after which he introduced landscaped gardens which became a visitor attraction and were opened to the public on Sunday afternoons during the 1920s, while the crowstepped Hall was often used for dances. Sir William is known to have carried out surgery on local patients free of charge. After Sir William's death his son, Lister, gifted part of the house to the local community.

Construction in mass concrete, as at Leagarth, was ideally suited for remote locations, but was seldom used for such large scale domestic structures. British stonemason Joseph Aspdin took out a cement patent as early as 1824 and by the end of the century many isolated areas of Scotland were adopting concrete as a popular construction material. The services of skilled stonemasons were not required, and ease of transport together with the ready availability of local aggregate made it a convenient alternative to heavy and expensive stone. In Stornoway on Lewis it became a favoured medium for adding decorative finishes to window and door surrounds.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780908

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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