Farm cottages 3-4, Isauld. View from south east

Description Farm cottages 3-4, Isauld. View from south east

Date 28/3/2017

Collection Historic Environment Scotland

Catalogue Number DP 258486

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Shortly after Dounreay was announced as the site of the fast breeder reactor establishment, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority bought two neighbouring farms due to their proximity to the site. One of these was at Isauld, 10 miles to the west of Thurso. As part of the deal, the UKAEA built a new house for the farm’s owner, and six cottages for displaced farm workers. The cottages were built in 1956 to the same design as the timber houses erected as part of the first phase of the UKAEA’s construction scheme for Dounreay workers in Thurso. These were considered ‘non-traditional’ buildings. ‘Non-traditional’ means that they were constructed using materials such as concrete or timber and employed elements of pre-fabrication so they could be erected quickly and cheaply; something which appealed to the budget-conscious UKAEA with its requirement to accommodate employees as soon as possible. These houses were designed by the Nottingham building firm Simms Sons & Cooke, with Thurso architect Hugh Sinclair Macdonald celebrating their ‘considerable charm and character’. As an aside to nuclear development, the built environment of nuclear townships in Britain is overlooked in favour of its technical and scientific elements. Yet the consequences of the atomic programme extend beyond the technological: the social infrastructure behind the science was integral to the success of many nuclear ventures. This had its most significant impact following the 1954 decision to site the country’s first fast breeder reactor establishment at Dounreay in Caithness, the most northerly county of the British mainland. The arrival of the UKAEA brought nuclear science to a rural landscape with an agricultural skills base. The chosen site was located close to the town of Thurso, the population of which grew from 3000 to 9000 as a result of the UKAEA ‘importing’ skilled scientists and engineers into the county to work alongside local workers to ensure the safe running of the establishment. To accommodate this influx the town underwent an extensive period of planning, with 1007 houses built to house the new citizens who were termed ‘the atomics’. By the end of the building programme in May 1963, four recognised estates of UKAEA houses had been built in Thurso: Castlegreen, Ormlie, Pennyland and Mount Vernon. Accommodating this population stands as an example of quick, complex change, triggered by a technical experiment with enduring social consequences. The housing developments were managed by the Thurso architectural firm of Sinclair Macdonald & Son, whose archives are held by Historic Environment Scotland. The UKAEA-built houses are now owned privately or by Pentland Housing Association.

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