Swartaback is a traditional croft complex at Rapness on Westray with a wind threshing mill tower attached to the barn. The building is listed by Historic Environment Scotland.
Swartaback is a late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century croft with later nineteenth-century additions. The complex includes a wind threshing mill tower attached to the barn, reflecting the use of wind power for agricultural threshing on Westray.
Swartaback is a traditional croft complex at Rapness on Westray in Orkney. The original section dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, with later nineteenth-century additions. The complex includes a house, barn, byre ranges and a wind threshing mill tower attached to the barn.
The wind-powered threshing arrangement belongs to the distinctive Orkney tradition of using wind engines to drive farm machinery in exposed areas with limited water power. The surviving windmill tower forms part of the listed croft complex. No full machinery inventory, maker, ownership sequence, or precise final operating date has been established.