General view from south.

Description General view from south.

Date 1886

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 746338

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of SU 192

Scope and Content Scourie, Highland Scourie, a small crofting community in the north-west of Sutherland, sits on the edge of Scourie Bay in a remote area near the north-west tip of Scotland. The Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed the village in 1886. The village, a collection of neat, 19th-century harled and whitewashed, single-storeyed cottages set against a background of rugged hills, is surrounded by small fields enclosed by drystone walls. The rubble-built, gable-ended shells of the original village houses, probably dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, can be seen on the right, some with their thatched roofs still intact. The single-storeyed, three-bayed cottage, often with a dormered attic, is found all over Scotland, recognisable as the traditional home of the farm worker or village inhabitant. Most date from the 19th century, replacing rural predecessors which had stone walls and thatched roofs. These earlier houses were oblong in plan, with three internal compartments providing accommodation for animals as well as people. The gable wall was not used to provide a fireplace with a chimney, but instead, the fire was set on a raised slab in the middle of the floor of the main room. The roof was constructed of turfs, laid green sides down, over a timber framework, and thatched with straw, heather, bracken or rushes. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/746338

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap