the shetland haa house

lerwick

Thumbnail images relate to the Haa they are alongside, please click on these images for a larger view.

Twageos House
early 18th c.
3 storey, 5 bays. The windows are spaced 1,1,3.
Chimney stacks at gables and off centre on ridge. Photographs show an arched entrance into walled grounds. A large Haa. Once the home of Lord Mortons factor in Shetland: in the 19th c. it belonged to the Bruces of Sumburgh.
Demolished in 1961.

10 Commercial St.
c.1730.
2½ storey, 3 bay. An early merchants house built by Patrick Torry showing typical Haa form with crowstepped gables.
House, restored from 1988 by Richard Gibson

Quendale House
1865
3 Storeys and garret, 3 bays. Bi- and Tri- partate windows.
Built for Andrew Grierson of Quendale. Haa influences are seen in this late townhouse.
Offices

Gremista Farmhouse
late 18th century?
This haa was sited inland and uphill of the Böd of Gremista. Fragments of its walled garden and steading remain.
2 storey and garret, 3 bays wide with dormers to the attic. A standard house with chimneys at each gable and an additional chimney stack emerging from the rear wallhead slightly off centre. Stone surrounds to the windows, otherwise harled. The building was demolished (by burning) in the 1970's. The rear steading was stone built in the form of a U and had slate roofs. (info. Neil Anderson 1996)

Böd of Gremista
18th c.
2 storey plus garret. A böd exhibiting the characteristics of the typical Haa form. It was the birthplace of Arthur Anderson at which time it served as a fish curing station.
Museum

26 Church Lane
early 19th c.
2 storeys and garret on raised basement, 3 bays. It was the town house of the Bruces of Symbister. Typical Haa form can be seen in this later townhouse.
House

Annsbrae House
1791
2 storey, 3 bay with flanking low office piended roofed wings. On a site originally known as 'Hungryhaa'. Built as a townhouse by the Mouats of Garth (Delting). Georgian, but the Haa form can still be discerned in the distance between the upper floor windows and the eaves. Square ashlar porch with moulded doorway.
Flats, restored in 1987 by Shetland Islands Council Architects.

North Ness House
19th c.
Tall and Haa shaped, this and its neighbour (House called Jahara) replaced a house of 200 years earlier.
(info. Neil Anderson 1996)

Note that many other houses in the older areas of Lerwick display the typical characteristics of the Haa.