Rysa Lodge

A sizeable vernacular mansion overlooking Rysa Bay on the east coast of the island of Hoy in Orkney, Rysa Lodge is located at Rysa, a mile (1.5 km) north of Lyness. Now A-listed, the building is harled with stone dressings. Notable features of the house are its crow-stepped gables, distinctive chimney stacks and wide low first floor windows just below the eaves. It was created from a modest croft-house in 1902 by the English Arts-and-Crafts architect William Lethaby (1857 - 1931) to form a two-storey L-shaped mansion with the original single-storey range incorporated at the end of the south wing. Lethaby had been contracted by Thomas Middlemore, a Birmingham industrialist, who had bought the island of Hoy in 1898. Middlemore lived at Melsetter House, which had already been substantially remodelled by Lethaby, but wanted Rysa Lodge to accommodate his shooting guests.

Its garden occupies the re-entrant angle between the wings of the building with its other sides protected by a high wall.

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