This is my first post on here so forgive me if it is a bit incoherent! 
We live on Shetland (not Aberdeenshire, but it didn't give me a Shetland or Highlands & Islands option for my profile as far as I could see) and are doing up an old croft house.
Our dilemma is that we have an old byre in the garden, it is the typical type, a long low byre designed for Shetland cattle/ponies. But we have two big horses, and while there is enough floor space for two horse stables there is not enough headroom.
The byre was rebuilt by the previous owners from a ruined one and so is original stone walls 3/4 way up two sides, then breezeblocks to the roof, and the other side is all breezeblock. The roof is felted and then overlaid with steel sheeting (and is rather leaky but that is the least of the issues).
If we were to consider gaining more headroom is it more reasonable to dig down (I doubt there are any foundations to speak of so presumably this would be an issue) or remove the roof and raise the wall height? The floor is currently (rotten) wood on earth.
Is any of this viable or would we be better starting afresh or even knocking the byre and rebuilding in the same place?
We have a very limited budget (basically £0 but really as little as possible) we would do as much as possible ourselves. We have no special skills but have so far managed everything we have attempted in the renovation.
We live on Shetland (not Aberdeenshire, but it didn't give me a Shetland or Highlands & Islands option for my profile as far as I could see) and are doing up an old croft house.
Our dilemma is that we have an old byre in the garden, it is the typical type, a long low byre designed for Shetland cattle/ponies. But we have two big horses, and while there is enough floor space for two horse stables there is not enough headroom.
The byre was rebuilt by the previous owners from a ruined one and so is original stone walls 3/4 way up two sides, then breezeblocks to the roof, and the other side is all breezeblock. The roof is felted and then overlaid with steel sheeting (and is rather leaky but that is the least of the issues).
If we were to consider gaining more headroom is it more reasonable to dig down (I doubt there are any foundations to speak of so presumably this would be an issue) or remove the roof and raise the wall height? The floor is currently (rotten) wood on earth.
Is any of this viable or would we be better starting afresh or even knocking the byre and rebuilding in the same place?
We have a very limited budget (basically £0 but really as little as possible) we would do as much as possible ourselves. We have no special skills but have so far managed everything we have attempted in the renovation.
