The Hall of Clestrain is the birthplace and childhood home of John Rae, where he grew up learning to sail, shoot and fish from its nearby shores looking out to Hoy Sound and across to Canada.
The Hall is a Category A listed building in recognition of its national and international importance for its historic and architectural significance. It is also on Scotland’s Buildings at Risk Register, where its condition is assessed as ‘poor’ and risk as ‘high’.
The Hall is an exceptionally rare and fragile surviving mid-Georgian villa, recognised as ‘of exceptional quality in an exceptional setting, one of the very best buildings of its scale and period anywhere in Scotland’. The Society purchased the Hall in 2016 and has since carried out stabilisation works and archaeology to understand its construction ahead of its restoration.
Find out more about the Hall and its history here.
Since 2020-21, the Society has been working on plans to preserve and sustainably develop the site before it is too late. Our current plans are outlined below.
Project 1: Save Hall of Clestrain (2024-6)
An urgent repairs project to rescue the Hall by making it wind and watertight. Cost £1.8 million.
An urgent repairs project to save and restore the Hall by making it wind and watertight and restoring its external envelope. Cost £1.8 million.
Save Hall of Clestrain aims to restore internationally significant heritage for future generations to enjoy and benefit from and to deliver public good. JRS will use it to engage the community and visitors in discovering Orkney’s adventuring past, drawing on the values John Rae embodied to promote understanding, exploration, active health and wellbeing, and partnership work across the two Commonwealth nations sharing this unique heritage.
The project’s objectives are:
- To restore the Category A Listed Hall and remove it from the Buildings at Risk Register
- To increase public access via a new road
- To increase awareness and understanding of the cultural significance of John Rae and Hall of Clestrain through improved public engagement and learning programmes
- To increase visitor numbers to c.20,000 each year
- To increase income and the sustainability of the Society
- To develop the Society’s experience of project delivery.
The society has worked closely with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to devise a programme of urgent repairs to rescue and restore the Hall, making it wind and watertight and enabling it to dry out ahead of further work. These capital works are:
- Removal of the corrugated sheet roof and reinstatement of the original Orkney slates to protect the wall heads, roof structure and Georgian joinery surviving in the interior
- Conservation repair and replacement of interior timbers, alongside essential structural works
- Conservation repairs to walls and a new coat of lime harl (Scottish thrown render) applied according to the original specification and design
- Reinstatement of the original 1760s pediment
- Installation of new window grilles to ensure good airflow to assist in drying out the building
- Temporary power, safe access works, and lighting to all levels and stairs will support greater access, enabled by a new access road.
Progress so far
To date we have raised over one third of the project’s costs, securing an offer of a £500K Repair Grant from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) – the public body that looks after Scotland’s most important buildings – and raising a further £105K through local and wider fundraising. We still need to raise a further £1.2million to start these vital repairs in 2025.
Project 2: A new future for Hall of Clestrain (2025-29/30)
A project to preserve and secure the long-term future of the Hall of Clestrain through a mixed-use development combining heritage attraction, engagement, learning, community and commercial activities. Cost estimate £5 million.
Progress so far
In July 2024 JRS secured a £248K grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This grant will enable us to start planning a new future for the Hall, carrying out consultation, site master planning, business planning and initiating partnerships with Canadian and First Nations organisations to ensure our plans reflect the values and legacy of John Rae.
Project 3: Arctic Centre (2030 +)
A separate long-term project will promote Scottish/Arctic activity and relations – past, present and future.