Who Lives in a House Like This? Stories from a Victorian Scottish Farmhouse, Boloquoy.

Video Description

Boloquoy Farmhouse – A House Through Time | Sanday, Orkney Step inside Boloquoy Farmhouse on Sanday, Orkney, a rare survival of Scotland’s rural past and the subject of this weeks video in my "Who lived in a house like this?" Series. This video is a follow up to my original house tour and traces the extraordinary story of a farm on Sanday continuously occupied for over 170 years by the same family, where layers of daily life remain almost completely intact. From Neolithic traces beneath the fields to turf-and-thatch farm buildings now among the last of their kind in Orkney, Boloquoy offers an exceptional window into Scotland’s social and domestic history. We explore the lives of the Fea family who shaped the house from the Victorian era onwards — beginning with maritime captain John Fea, captor of the pirate John Gow, through to John and Robina Fea, who brought their Edinburgh lifestyle to this remote island farm in the 1880s. Their children’s stories unfold inside the rooms they left behind. The film also reveals the extraordinary material culture uncovered during restoration,personal chests, clothing, letters, jewellery, tools, and household objects preserved through generations of careful repair and reuse. One family’s culture of sustainability long before the word existed remains written into the fabric of the house itself. Finally, we follow the 20th-century chapter as the Drever family modernised the farmhouse with the arrival of electricity and mains water, before the final resident left Boloquoy in 2023, entrusting the house and its contents to new caretakers determined to preserve its story. This is not a museum recreation, it is a living home restored to honour the people who once filled its rooms. If YOU would love to stay here please visit the Boloquoy website at : https://www.boloquoy.co.uk if you mention in your booking enquiry you heard about it on Through Lucy's Lens they will add a small discount to your booking. Location: Sanday, Orkney, Scotland Period: Neolithic – Victorian – 20th Century Style: Documentary / heritage storytelling