Field Visit
Date August 2014
Event ID 995280
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/995280
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).
Set into the natural slope and with a floor that slopes, the black house measures 6.24m from N to S by 2.91m transversely within walls up to 1.4m thick and 1.8m high on the sides and 2.6m high at the ends Unusually, the walls incorporate large stones in the lower courses. the gables are later additions. Turf on the side walls indicates the position of the last roof and cement has been used to seal the area over the openings and at the gables. There is a door and window in the W wall, a position dictated by the stream, a byre-drain under the S wall, and two tethering pins in the E wall. Timbers protruding from the outer wall of the gables were presumably used for securing the roof covering.
There is little evidence in this building for remodelling and it seems likely that it is the structure depicted on Sharbau’s plan as a ‘manure house’ (SAS Mss 158). However, it was presumably constructed between 1834 and 1858 as a byre-dwelling for a second branch of the Macdonald family, though note the record of cottars living between crofts 7 and 8 (Lawson 1993, 9 and 24).
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM, JM) August 2014.
