Field Visit
Date August 2014
Event ID 995281
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/995281
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.
It measures 4.69m from N to S by 2.31m transversely within walls between 1.1m and 1.2m in thickness. While the walls are unusually high at 2.14m, the N wall is set into the slope giving an external height of only 1.4m. The external corners on the W side are squared, and there are straight joints indicating that both the N and S end-walls extended E in an earlier phase. There is a doorway in the E wall and a large window in the N wall. The masonry surrounding the window opening has been mortared suggesting it is a later insertion.
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM, JM) August 2014.
