Bigton House

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

Bigton House in the 1890's.
Photo from Shetland Museum and Archives

Bigton House August 2007.
The building has not altered much in more than 100 years

Bigton House in Bigton, Dunrossness, was built in 1788 by John Bruce of Symbister.
John Bruce married Clementine (alternatively Clementina) Stewart of Bigton on June 8th 1744. She was the last surviving direct descendant of the original Stewart line.

44 years later he replaced the old house. He had added Stewart to his name, and his initials and the date can be seen above the old entrance.
When the Revd. George Low visited the place on his tour in 1774, he wrote that Bigton was the largest farm in Shetland, " - full of bere and oats, both as good of their kinds as even in the south of Scotland. "
As we can see on the picture to the right, there are still large productive fields at the farm.

Some pictures from the past

David Budge of Bigton Farm in his gig 1915
Photo from Shetland Museum and Archives

Lerwick carter delivering a ram to Bigton Farm c 1912. L to R, Alex Inkster, (carter, Lerwick), James Mouat, (ploughman on the farm), in cart, David Budge (brother of James Budge occupier of the farm), man in dark suit, Alex Irvine, Boddam
Photo from Shetland Museum and Archives