Sanday, Orkney
Call: 01857 600206
The Belsair is now a family run Guest House in Kettletoft Village on the beautiful Island of Sanday at the top of the old pier now used as a haven for the island's Lobster boats.
The building that now houses The Belsair incorporates two houses. A Post Office has been situated in the lower end since 1881, although the office itself has been moved within the building. There was a telephone exchange here from 1933 until 1972, serving all the Northern Isles.
The present owners, John and Elizabeth Sinclair took over The Belsair in May 2006. They have fully refurbished the bedrooms to a very high comfortable standard, and made them all en suite. The public rooms downstairs have also been refurbished.
The building was built by Kenneth Hay between 1876 - 1881. It was constructed to house the fisher folk who travelled around the east coast with the fishing fleet gutting the fish, making the barrels, etc.
A few changes took place on the island since the demise of the fishing industry. The Sinclair family used their trades and took on the running of the post and telegraph office to earn a living.
Before British Telecom there was a manual exchange here on Sanday in the building. The manual exchange was a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week service with Sanday being the centre for all the north isles calls going to Kirkwall and beyond. An interesting part of having an island exchange was that callers asked to be put through to the name of the house rather than the official telephone number of the house!
Many years passed until the death of an aunt in the family, Bella Sinclair. With unused rooms in the house it seemed a natural step to turn the home into a guest house. At this time the house was still known as 'the Post Office'. It was felt with the development of the guest house that another name should be used to separate the 'post office' work from the 'guest house' business.
Bella Sinclair, second of six daughters of Kenneth Sinclair, was unmarried and her family consisted of the many children of her sisters. As a loving and lasting tribute to her the family decided to take up the suggestion of calling the house after her using the 'Bel' from Bella and 'Sair' from Sinclair. Hence The Belsair was born.
The development of the restaurant began when a few of the islanders asked if they could take their guests out for a meal. We continue to grow adding an Internet computer and Wireless access for our guests and customers and have recently added a new revised menu.