View from SE Digital image of RC 1395

Description View from SE Digital image of RC 1395

Date 10/1975

Catalogue Number SC 793837

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of RC 1395

Scope and Content Black house, Skigersta, Lewis, Western Isles, from south-east To the left of the black house is a small outbuilding which may be a byre or a barn. It is built of stone with a thatched roof. Black houses usually provided accommodation for cattle as well as humans, and the area of the house seen here is the part which would have been the byre. The byre was built on a slope to allow the drainage of waste away from the living quarters. The roof of the black house is supported on wood, which sometimes was very difficult to obtain. The thatch probably consists of overlapping layers of turf, over which straw has been laid. All the layers are held down with coir (made from coconut husk fibres) rope, but straw and heather ropes would have been used originally. At the end crown of the hipped roof a stick can be seen, to which the ropes securing the hipped end are attached. Lewis and Harris are both parts of the same island, collectively known as 'the Long Island', which is the most northerly in the Outer Hebrides. Together they are about 95km in length and around 32km at the widest point. Most of Lewis is quite low-lying, whereas Harris is mountainous. Skigersta is on the north-east coast of Lewis. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/793837

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap