St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Blackhouse C

NF19NW 21.05 10209 99337

This ruinous drystone building, a typical blackhouse, lies obliquely between Houses 3 and 4, part of its S end-wall forming an edge to the street. Contiguous with the upper N end and set at a slightly higher level, corresponding to the natural slope of the ground, there is a small transversely aligned annexe. Blackhouse C, together with House 3, was a residence of the Gillies family until the end of the 19th century.

The main structure measures 6.4m by 3.35m within walls varying between 1.37m and 1.9m in thickness and up to 1.98m in height. Externally, the walls are battered and the angles rounded. The S end-wall being almost in the form of an arc on plan. Internally, the N end-wall is not bonded into the side-walls. The doorway is situated towards the S end of the E side-wall, its neatly paved threshold covering what is probably a drain. A little to the N of it is a small window-opening, the sill of which has been levelled with mortared slates in order to fit a window-frame about 0.2m from the inner wall-face. At the N end of the building traces of red ash from burnt turf or peat are visible in the masonry joints on the lower courses of the wall. At the S end there are two iron rings low down in the W side-wall, and a drain runs out under the end-wall.

The N annexe is set into the slope and the N side-wall is only 0.23m above ground level. Internally, it measures 3.76m by 2.26m within walls varying between 0.99m and 1.37m in thickness. The E gable-wall survives to an original height of 2.59m, and contains a doorway and a window. The doorway, which was formerly fitted with a wooden door-frame, is spanned by two large stone lintels and has a flagged threshold covering a drain. A gneiss quernstone has been built into the N ingoing of the window-opening, and surviving traces of cement and fragments of window-glass suggest that a glazed frame was latterly set about 0.23m from the inner wall-face. At the W end of the building there is a low platform with a slabbed surface 0.6m wide and 0.25m above floor-level.

A flagsstone path leads down to the street from the doorways of the two buildings, and a drain from the upper building runs beneath the path to emerge on the S side of the street.

G P Stell and M Harman 1988.