St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Blackhouse S

This roofless blackhouse lies end-on to the street and there is a smaller transversely orientated building contiguous with its upper NNW end. The main unit measures 5.52m from NNW to SSE by 2.76m transversely within walls up to 2.2m thick and 2.7m high at the rebuilt NNW gable, and 1.7m high elsewhere. The inner angles are square but they are not bonded at the NNE, suggesting that this end has been brought in. There is a doorway and window in the ENE side-wall; three timber dooks in the door jambs indicate the position of the timber door frame, while the inner lintel is a re-used timber. Tar and cement on the wallhead indicate the position of the last roof. There is a byre-drain offset to the ENE running under the SSE end-wall and extending 1.8m into the interior. A small step in the interior, now only 1.8m from the SSE end, may indicate where the interior of the original building was separated into two areas, the lower one for cattle.

The smaller unit measures 4.52m from ENE to WSW by 2.57m transversely within walls up to 1.2m in thick and 1.45m in height at the sides and 2.3m high at the gables; the ENE end is set into the slope. There is an entrance in the ENE end, a single timber dook in the door jamb indicating the position of the door frame, and a small window in the WSW end.

Blackhouse S and its successor House 14 were occupied by the Gillies family (SAS Mss 158; Lawson 1993, 31).

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM, JM) August 2014.

RCAHMS surveyed Blackhouse S (NF09 NW 18), Village Bay, St Kilda on 29 August 2014 with plane-table and alidade at a scale of 1:100. The resultant plan was redrawn in vector graphics software.