Field Visit
Date 31 August 2014
Event ID 995279
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/995279
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.
Set into the slope, the main unit measures 5.81m by 3.17m within walls over 1.6m thick and 1.6m in height internally at the N end. Poor bonding at all four corners suggests that the interior has been reduced in length at both ends; the unusually thin S end-wall may suggest that this wall has been reconstructed to allow a realignment of the street. The lintels of the door and window openings in the E wall are missing.
Internally, the transverse N unit measures 3.31m from E to W by 2.08m, the walls being up to 1.1m thick and 1.68m high. There are reused fragments of zinc roof sheeting in the N wallhead. A doorway in the E end-wall retains the door frame lintel. A drain runs around the N wall and flows into a slab drain along the E side-wall of the main unit. This annexe post dates the 1858 plan and is unusual in not being provided with a window.
Spoil accumulated in the interior by volunteers, particularly in connection with the renovation of House 6 (Johnstone 1998) was removed under archaeological supervision in 2014.
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM, JM) 31 August 2014.
