Field Visit

Date 20 September 2014

Event ID 1011622

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1011622

Scottish Thatched Building Survey

NB 31069 49238 This property is owned and managed by Historic Environment Scotland and comprises a thatched blackhouse, byre and adjoining barn, open to the public as an exhibition of a once common building type and way of life. The blackhouse was built circa 1880 and was last occupied in 1964. The main blackhouse range incorporates a byre at one end, and has an adjoining parallel barn range at the rear. Both roofs are thatched in straw, with a continuous straw ridge. The thatch has been entirely netted, including across the ridge, which has been weighted down with stones and ropes that run vertically down the roof and across the ridge. At either end the ropes are secured to timber ‘horns’ that protrude through the thatch. The netting is also weighted along the wallhead with stones that are placed on the edge of the net as well as by the turf laid on the wallhead. There are two small straw thatched outbuildings to the north, which have been netted and weighted with stones.

Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 20 September 2014, survey no.230