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Symbister House is a former country house in
Symbister Symbister is the largest village and port on Whalsay, an island in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland. The population in 1991 was 797. The focus of the village is the harbour, which is home to small fishing boats as well as large deep sea tra ...
,
Whalsay Whalsay ( sco, Whalsa; non, Hvalsey or ''Hvals-øy'', meaning 'Whale Island') is the sixth largest of the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland. Geography Whalsay, also known as "The Bonnie Isle", is a peat-covered island in the Shetland I ...
island, in the
Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
islands of Scotland. It was built in 1823 by the Bruce family who were lairds (landlords) of the island for about 300 years from the 16th century. Since 1964 it has been the Whalsay Secondary School, after it fell into disuse following the death of the last of the landlord occupants of the house in 1944. Built in an elegant
Georgian architectural style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, ...
, it is categorized officially as a
category B Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and heritage structure.


History

The Bruce family who came to Whalsay in the 17th century owned the entire island. They owned the island for nearly 300 years. They employed local people to carry out fishing operations for commercial purposes. This remains part of the island's folklore. Ghost stories are also narrated of this place, including that of an old sailor who was murdered for arguing with the gardener of the house during a game of cards. The Bruce family took up the ambitious project of building Symbister House in 1823 in a grand Georgian architectural style with brown coloured granite stones chiseled into square blocks. They employed local labour for the construction, yet it cost the huge sum of £30,000, as they brought quarried granite stones from the tidal affected area of North Nesting. The house, which was the largest building complex on the island of the time, is also known as New Haa. Local stories mention that the landlord who built it did not want ownership to pass to his son, with whom he had strained relationship. This resulted in hard times for the Bruce family who inherited the property. Even to maintain it they had to take on boarders in the 1920s and 30s. The last of the lairds died here in 1944. The building then remained vacant for some years and was subject to deterioration. It was only in 1963 that the local council took possession of the building and refurbished part of the complex into a school. After renovation, the school opened in 1964 as the Whalsay Junior High School. It has been renovated in recent years by the council. The New Haa as originally built, had courtyards, a writing room, outbuildings, stables, byres, a farmhouse, a grinding mill (run by a water wheel of 16 ft diameter), a
dovecote A dovecote or dovecot , doocot (Scots Language, Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house Domestic pigeon, pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or ba ...
and a "high-rise", three-seater toilet outside. The local history group has plans to develop these buildings into a museum and a heritage complex. Water supply to the complex was from a reservoir.


References

{{Whalsay Whalsay Country houses in Shetland Houses completed in 1823 Category B listed buildings in Shetland