St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, The Bull's House
Bull House (19th Century)
Site Name St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, The Bull's House
Classification Bull House (19th Century)
Canmore ID 9685
Site Number NF19NW 21.03
NGR NF 10015 99561
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9685
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Harris
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
Publication Account (1988)
NF19NW 21.03 10015 99561
This small drystone building lies in an area NW of Tobar Childa and, comparable in some respects with the houses built in the 1830s, it is the only oblong gabled structure outside the head dyke. Mr Lachlan MacDonald has confirmed that in the 19th century it was built on common land for the bull that was sent to St Kilda by the Department of Agriculture. Similar buildings for housing a township bull exist on common grazings elsewhere in the Hebrides at, for example, Grenitote, North Uist, and Breakish, Skye.
The building measures internally 2.85m in length from E to W by 1.93m transversely. The walls are up to 1.3m thick, and the gable walls rise to a height of 1.98m. Because of a fall in ground-level the S side-wall stands to an external height of 2.24m, and the SW angle is buttressed in relation to the enclosure-wall; the other end of the S wall abuts the E gable and there is no bonding in the lower courses on the inner face. The lintelled doorway in the centre of the E gable-wall is 1.25m high and 0.89m wide. In the interstices of the inner face of the N side-wall there are small pieces of dried cattle dung.
In a photograph of 1886, this structure appears thatched and without gables, and the ruinous enclosure with which it is now associated was then complete, having since been dismantled, probably to build Cleit 141 nearby.
G P Stell and M Harman 1988.
Conservation (2001)
NF 101 991 (centre) As part of the Management Agreement with Historic Scotland, the monuments within Village Bay were recorded and monitored, and certain cleits, dykes and enclosures were repaired in 2001 under supervision by members of the two volunteer work parties. Detailed work included the completion of the identification of around 300 cleits for active management, and the production of a report on cleit preservation, as well as rapid assessments of coastal erosion and the deposition of builders' debris within some of the roofless structures along the village street.
Report to be deposited in the NMRS.
Photographic Survey (2002)
NF 101 991 (centre) As part of the Management Agreement with Historic Scotland, the monuments within Village Bay were recorded and monitored, and certain cleits, dykes, drains and enclosures were repaired under supervision by members of the volunteer work parties which went out to St Kilda in 2002.
A photographic survey of the coastline in Village Bay was carried out and compared to images taken in 1999. The survey indicated erosion along the NE side of the bay. Two sherds of hand-made pottery were recovered and a layer of burning noted in an exposed section.
The annual monitoring of cleits across the island was carried out and the photographic survey of them continued.
Report to be deposited in the NMRS.
Sponsors: HS, NTS.
S Bain 2002
