Special Survey: St Kilda

Date September 2014

Event ID 1038288

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1038288

2014 RCAHMS Special Survey

A team from the RCAHMS Landscape Survey section undertook a fieldtrip to St Kilda in September 2014 with two objectives: firstly to re-assess the archaeological evidence for the pre-Improvement township (cf Fleming 2005); and secondly to complete the corpus of detailed plans of the 19th century blackhouses. This work was designed to build upon the archaeological mapping of St Kilda undertaken by RCAHMS between 2007 and 2009, and to supplement the detailed surveys of blackhouses undertaken by RCAHMS between 1983 and 1986 (Stell and Harman 1988). The fieldwork was undertaken by George F Geddes and Alison McCaig, assisted by trainee Joe McAllister, and was further aided by contributions from Kevin Grant (National Trust for Scotland) and Cathy MacIver (independent archaeologist).

Seven plane table drawings were created, capturing fourteen blackhouses on plan at a scale of 1:100 (blackhouses A, B, D, J, F, H, Q, R, P, S, T, U, V and X). For each, an Adobe Illustration was produced at a scale of 1:200; both are available on Canmore. Site descriptions of each building were written by G F Geddes and edited by J R Sherriff. The reassessment of the pre-Improvement township and an accompanying illustration were published in 2015 (Gannon and Geddes 2015).

Information from HES Survey and Recording (GFG), August 2018

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

Event	Type	Subtype	Notes	Date
995280	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	This roofless blackhouse stands on the street immediately W of the burn that runs from Tobar Childa. Positioned on croft no. 8, it was one of two blackhouses, the second of which stood immediately to the W. That building, the main dwelling in 1858 (SAS Mss 158), was demolished in advance of the construction of House 8 and its remains were excavated in the 1980s (Emery 1996). [...]	August 2014
995281	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	Not a blackhouse at all, this building stands immediately adjacent to House 9 on the street and although built in drystone, its masonry is more akin to that of the houses of the 1860s than those of the 1830s. With ‘Blackhouse’ I, this building represents the remnants of a mill erected c1862, to be used with an ‘American hand-milling machine’ which was never delivered (SAS Mss 158; Harman 1997, 109; Johnstone 1998, 21; Fleming 2005, 148). It may well have been occupied by a widow or a cottar in later years. [...]	August 2014
995279	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	This blackhouse, constructed in the 1830s, stands end-on to the street and there is a small transversely aligned building at the upper end. This building was occupied by a succession of Fergusons beginning with John (1772-c1845) and his family (SAS Mss 158; Lawson 1993, 22). The croft later passed to the Gillies family who stayed in the adjacent House 6. [...]	31 August 2014