Corrigall Farm Museum
A restored 19th-century Orkney farmstead in Harray with a peat-fired farmhouse, byre and grain kiln; currently closed until further notice.
Have only individual sections read aloud
About the museum
Corrigall Farm Museum is a restored traditional Orkney farm steading in the parish of Harray. In the 1960s the county librarian Evan MacGillvray and the folklorist Ernest Marwick identified the farm then known as Midhouse as a good candidate for preservation, as a record of how ordinary Orcadian farming families lived.
Restoration began in 1979, carried out by a Manpower Services Commission team under a professional stonemason. The first idea was to rebuild a central hearth, which would have meant taking out the interior wall and its fireplace, but the building was finally restored as it stood. It was renamed Corrigall, after the family who lived there and the local district, because there are several farms called Midhouse in Harray.
The museum presents a typical "but and ben" farmhouse of the Victorian period together with its barn, stable and byre. Visitors can see a working barn, a round grain kiln used to dry grain for malting and brewing, horse-drawn farm machinery and a peat fire that recreates the atmosphere of the period. The rooms are furnished with household objects collected for the project, and together they show how people lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, when many Orcadians left the islands.
The museum is run by Orkney Islands Council as part of its museums service. It is currently closed because of conservation work and pressure on resources, and no reopening date has been announced.
Highlights
- Traditional Orkney "but and ben" farmhouse with peat fire
- Working barn and round grain kiln
- Byre and stable with farm animals
- Horse-drawn farm machinery
- Furnished kitchen and bedroom from the Victorian period
Permanent exhibition
- Traditional Orkney farmhouse and farm buildings – A restored "but and ben" farmhouse with a kitchen and bedroom, a barn with a grain kiln and a byre, showing farming life in 18th- and 19th-century Orkney.
- Founded
- 1979
- Operated by
- Orkney Islands Council
Admission & discounts
Admission is free.
Entry is free, with no booking needed, when the museum is open.
Accessibility
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Kids & families
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Getting there & parking
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Amenities & dining
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Events & venue rental
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