dissertation: the lewis blackhouse

for my third year dissertation i chose to write about the history of the demise of a symbol of scottish vernacular, the blackhouse. i soon discovered that there was different forms of blackhouses and decided to focus on the lewis blackhouse as it was the one best documented, it also had the most stubborn residents as they were occupied until mid 1970's.
i really enjoyed researching the building form and the social history of an island. i also learnt so much about the definition of vernacular. i find the lewis blackhouse truly fascinating from its evolving plan to the primitive construction. the best part of the blackhouse is that every design decision has a reason that is based on practicality and connected to their livelihood of crofting. here are my personal favourite pieces of information:

drawing of lewis blackhouse by Bruce Walker

1. where the name 'blackhouse' originates.
by technical definition a blackhouse is a house with no windows and no chimney. traditionally a blackhouse, ‘tigh dubh’ translated into gaelic, was a house that was not a whitehouse. the term was coined during the 19^th century because prior to this time all the houses on lewis were of the same type. it was only when a new building type, the whitehouse, came onto the island did they have to invent a word to distinguish the two different building types. the new houses were called ‘tigh geal’, whitehouse, because of their white lime mortar cement exterior and  the antonym ‘tigh dubh’ was used to describe the old type of house.

section of blackhouse by Bruce Walker

2. they kept the animals and the accumulating manure in the byre over winter.

the cattle’s presence in the house brought with it a number of benefits: it made it easier for the women to milk the cows since they did not have to go outside, they provided warmth and by allowing the cattle manure to accumulate it made it easier in spring to gather it for fertilizing the land. in winter the byre was used as a general dumping ground for waste as human and food waste was added to the cattle dung. while the manure accumulated the floor became uneven so sometimes turf was laid on top to create a new steady level for the animals to gain a footing. witness accounts record that due to the build up of manure the floor in the byre raised so much that in spring it was sometimes possible to see cows’ heads poking through the roof. this might have been due to the cattle eating the thatch or the cattle had ruined the thatch with their horns.

the east facing window in the bedroom at 42 arnol, isle of lewis

3. the only window they had was east facing.

when the new croft tenure lease was set by the landlords in late 19^th century it stipulated that the houses must have windows. to comply with the new regulations it became common to find windows in bedrooms, demonstrated in the image below. in particularly windows were fitted on the east wall of the bedroom because people believed it important to be woken by the morning sun as in the old gaelic proverb:

'an iar's an ear, an dachaigh as' fhéarr - cùl ri gaoith,'s aghaidh ri gréin.'

‘east to west, the house that’s best – back to the wind and face to the sun.’ 

4. there was no chimney

the thick smoke from the peat fire, that gives the living room its character, was trapped not only for its heat but also to turn the roof thatch into fertiliser. from inside the living room the roofs a-frame structure is visible. turf, either heather or grass turf, was laid on top of purlins. however not all of the roof was covered with turf  as it was the intention that the thatch, that was on top of the turf, would become impregnated with soot from the rising smoke. the thatch was then removed in the summer and used as a fertilizer for the potato crop. the area of exposed thatching varied and the reason for this is best described by bruce walker:

‘The amount of straw available for re-thatching depended on the amount of dung available from the crofter’s cattle: the number of cattle available depended on the availability of fodder, supplemented in the winter by potatoes and the crop depended on the soot top dressing from the stripped thatch.’ 

5. the front, and only door, opened outwards.

traditionally the front door opened outwards to stop it from being blown open by a gust of wind. if the door was open a strong gust of wind could have damaged the roof and resulted in it ‘taking off’. also the dimensions were made just wide enough for cattle to get through, 0.65 to 1m wide and a height of 1.7m.