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South Uist, 472a South Lochboisdale
Thatched Cottage (19th Century)
Site Name South Uist, 472a South Lochboisdale
Classification Thatched Cottage (19th Century)
Canmore ID 172179
Site Number NF71NE 7.03
NGR NF 78551 17546
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/172179
- Council Western Isles
- Parish South Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
No 472b, c.1920 Thatched cottage, remarkable for its date and intact state, and for being the home, until his death in February 2000, of bard Donald Macdonald (Domhnall Aonghais Bhan). Thickly set, it hugs the ground like a creature, with earlike stacks and button-eye windows peeping out from beneath a fringe of thatch. In the kitchen, a livestock tethering ring hangs from the wall. Originally thatched with heather, it forms a good pair with A-listed No 472a, which was last occupied in the late 1980s and subsequently gutted, but renovated as a holiday let, 2005.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
Field Visit (May 1990)
NF 785 176. Abandoned and deteriorating.
Set in an area of slightly-raised boulder-strewn ground on the S side of Loch Boisdale to the N side of the single-track road leading to North Glendale, this single-storeyed cottage faces E. It is rectangular on plan. Constructed over substantial boulder foundations, the walls, which measure some 1.1m in average thickness, are of local granite rubble set in mortar and whitewashed. In length the building measures 12m; it is 6.3m in width. The doorway, in the centre of the E front, is flanked by symmetrically placed windows; there are two irregularly-placed windows in the W front and a single window in the E corner of the N wall. The building is roofed with rushes (‘luchair’) secured with wire-netting weighted with stones; the chimney-stacks are of square plan.
The doorway leads into a small vestibule with a living-room situated to the S and the main bedroom to the N. Set within wooden partitions behind the vestibule is a box-bedroom. There is a fireplace with a simple wooden surround set into the centre of the W wall; there is a cast-iron stove of late 19th century or early 20th century date set against the centre of the S wall.
Some 30m to the NE the are the foundations of outbuildings. These include a byre and a walled enclosure (‘lodhlann’) for haystacks. There is also a roofless byre some 20m to the S of the cottage. Immediately S of the house runs the line of the old road, since partly bypassed, linking South Lochboisdale and North Glendale.
Visited by RCAHMS (NMC), May 1990.
Field Visit (11 June 2015)
NF 78550 17547 Single storey cottage, renovated and currently in use as holiday accomodation. The cottage has a marram thatch roof with a continuous marram ridge. The entire roof has been netted, which is weighted at the eaves and around the chimney stacks at either gable end with stones, secured to the netting by wire.
Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 11 June 2015, survey no.302
Field Visit (10 June 2015)
NF 78532 17482 Group listing for a 'Probably 19th century' thatched cottage and 'byre and shed to north and to south also thatched'. The cottage is listed as having a 'muran thatch roof, partly renewed in straw, and secured with netting ropes and stone weights'. There are no visible signs of anything that could clearly be identified as the byre and shed, and the cottage itself is now a roofless ruin with no visible signs of any thatch remaining. The listing description for the building should be updated accordingly.
Visited by Zoe Herbert (SPAB) 10 June 2015, survey no.305
