SUTHERLAND'S OF SANDSIDE
The present house of Sandside was built about the mid 19th Century and was originally two separate dwellings with an external staircase.
Each dwelling had five rooms and it is still possible to see the original room layout. Sometime early last century the outer staircase was lost and the fireplace at the rear of the house was made into a door, with a lean-to porch added. This may have been around 1910 when the two "flats" were converted into one house. Possibly about the same time the outbuildings (known locally as a Bothy) were joined to the main house by a cinder block building, and the stone walls were covered with a “harling”, a lime based mixture with beach sand and shell. This may have been done to improve weatherproofing or simply due to fashion.
Sandside was home to the Sutherland family for several generations, and they farmed the surrounding land.
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| Sandside with external stair | Sandside Harvest | Graemsay taxi at Sandside | Sutherland Family outside Sandside (Click on photo for list of names) |
Henry (Harry) Sutherland moved from the neighbouring island of Hoy to Sandside, Graemsay circa 1830. He and his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Sutherland raised 10 children. Two of their sons, Alexander and Samuel went on to farm Sandside, Alexander and family living in the downstairs "flat" and Samuel and family in the upstairs part.
Alexander and his wife Margaret had 11 children, while Samuel and his wife, Mary Sinclair Lyon, had 12 children, including a set of twins. The Sutherlands would also have had a "live-in" farm worker.
Around 1910 Alexander and family moved to farm in Orphir, on the Orkney Mainland. Leaving Samuel and his family to farm Sandside. Later Samuel's son, John Daniel Sutherland, took over the running of the farm until his death in 1951. A year later the remaining Sutherland family moved to Aberdeen, ending over 120 years of the Sutherland era on Graemsay.
During renovations we have found some "relics" in the loft which was used at one time as bedrooms for the children. An empty packet of cigarettes was found, together with a ceramic button and an old leather shoe complete with iron nails. There are also a number of examples of names carved onto the stone of Sandside, the best being "JS J Sutherland, 1899".
Acknowledgement: Much of the information about the Sutherland family courtesy of Stuart Sutherland, great-grandson of Henry Sutherland.