by Alexander Shevlinn

For the purpose of this article, I am basing my information on the Blackhouse at 42 Arnol on the 

West side of Lewis, which is now in the care of the Department of Environment.

 

Although Blackhouses seem more archaic than they really are, their architecture and layout carry on traditions of a form of living and working that is infinitely older.
The architecture of 'Island Blackhouses' was very 

functional, in the sense that each room could be used for a variety of purposes. I will be looking at how functionalism 

as opposed to ornamentalism, played an important part in the construction of these dwellings.

Architecture and Layout of 42 Arnol
The present roof at 42 Arnol has been restored by the Department of Environment. The rafters are linked by single tie-beams, crossing at the apex to make a cradle for the roof-ridge. The tie-beams arefixed by wooden pins to the rafters. The horizontal purlins are of separate lengths of wood lashed together, including a large oar or sweep in the rafters over the front door.

In both house and byre there are upper and lower purlins, and base purlins low down near the wall-head. The barn, of which the roof is lower and narrower, has only upper and base purlins. The main difference between now and when the house was in full occupation is in the roofing timbers of the byre. The rafters then lay at a much more shallow angle. There were scarcely any tie-beams, as a result of which the roof had sagged in a manner characteristic of the byre-ends of blackhouses in the area, since less care was taken in the construction of this part. To counteract this, two upright poles were set in the middle of the floor, one actually springing from the byre drain.

These elements - roof-ridge, rafters, tie-beams, and purlins, were further strengthened and made rigid by coir yarn lashings at the crossings. Overlying the purlins are the vertical side-timbers, which (in the bedroom) include barrel staves and a tiller. These formed a reasonably level surface for the overlying sods and thatch.

The timbers of the roof were covered with heathery sods, sgrathan, laid from eaves to ridge and overlapping like the scales of a fish. The ridge sods overlapped on two sides. The thatch (bere-straw), was laid from eaves to ridge in shaken-out bunches without being drawn straight so that the straws lay parallel. This was then fastened down by a fishing net and by ropes, made of heather or hemp horse-hair. The ends of the ropes go round anchor stones, acraichean, about 25-30cm long, lying about 30 cm up from the wall-head. Another row of stones, not fixed to the ropes, were then set between these and the wall-head. The horizontal ropes tied or looped round the verticals as spacers are called luban in the Arnol area.

At the apex of each hip, a protruding 'maide fithich', served as an anchor for the ropes that held the thatch on the hip. The hipped shape of the roof meant that the underlying rafters had to be arranged in a particular way. This was very functional as its shape enhanced wind resistance. A centre beam, corra thulchainn, (whose extension upwards through the thatch is used as an anchor for the ropes) would link the middle of the gable and the roof-ridge. A pair of an roinn-oisinn, stretch from each corner of the gable and side-walls to the roof ridge. Since the first pair of rafters also meets here, there is a junction or overlapping of seven elements at the end of the roof-ridge.

The walls have an inner and outer skin of stone, and a central core of peat-mould and earth. This core is the talamh balla. The rafters rest on the inner face of the wall, and the thatch comes down as far as the core, helping to improve its insulating qualities in relation to both cold and wind. The outer part of the double wall remained open, forming a tobhta, on which it was easy to walk and from which the thatch could readily be replaced or repaired. The tobhta could be reached by the staireachan, situated at the end of the byre. The width of the tobhta varied considerably, from about 46cm at the end of the barn next to the stackyard, to about 137cm at the bedroom end of the house. The part that forms the gutter between the house and barn is 91cm.

There is no chimney or smoke-hole in the roof at 42 Arnol. This is a relic of the old tradition of allowing the thatch to become as much impregnated with soot as possible, for use as fertilizer in the fields, with new thatch being applied annually. The only openings in the thatch were small, rectangular roof lights. These roof lights had a pane of skin, (in later years glass), as much to retain the smoke as to keep out the weather.

Tour of an Island Blackhouse
The dorus opens on an entrance area, formerly used as the stairseach. Both people and cattle used this entrance. To the left of the entrance area is the living room, entered through a wooden partition which contains a half-door. This opening could be screenedby a netting-wire frame to keep hens out. In the centre of the kitchen floor is the cagailt, using peat fuel, from the large stack at the back of the house. The slabhraidhand the dubhan, from which the pots and kettle are hung, are fastened to the roof-ridge, the strongest part of the roof timbers. The kitchen leads to the uachdar an taigh. The tallan fiodha, between the kitchen and bedroom contains a wooden door with an iron sneck, with an opening giving access to a box-bed.

The bedroom was functional rather than ornamental. It has three leabaidh dhuinte, one of which opens into the kitchen. They are curtained and have knitted covers. When this Blackhouse was lived in there would have been a bord, with two leaves, a preas, a ciste, a dreasar for clothes, and a uaireadair, on the wall beside the window. There would also be a shelf above the door, which would contain a variety of tins and odds and ends, and attached to the wooden partition wall a Tilly-lamp, used before electricity was introduced. The bedroom is the only room with a uinneag, the opening for which has been cut through the top of the double wall. there are two rectangular panes in a wooden frame. The window does not open. All other windows in the house, byre and barn have fixed roof lights in the thickness of the thatch.

The byre is entered through a wooden partition to the right of the entrance door. It has buabhall-na-ba along one side separated by three wooden partitions of a triangular shape. These are formed of vertical wooden planks nailed to an angled member that runs from the floor up to the base purlin. There are no troughs, and food for the cattle was simply laid into the forestall. The cattle were tied by ropes to an upright wooden pole fixed against the wall at the front of the stall. The floors of the stalls are raised slightly above the floor behind where a drain leads the urine through a hole in the toll lodain, to the field outside. In addition to the byre-drain, there is also a system of drains below the flagstones ofthe floors. One drains runs right across the house and barn, through the front door, its course being marked by an irregular line of stones. Another main drain appears to run at right angles to this one, passing right underneath the central hearth. The byre floor is of bare earth.

The sabhal, lies in parallel with the house and byre, with its own roof, but sharing a common wall. It does not extend for the full length of the house and byre. The barn floor is clayed at the point where threshing was done with the flail.

The inner end of the barn floor is lined with substantial planks, on top of which the sheaves can be laid, insulated from the damp of the floor. A door in the wall opposite the front door leads into it and in line there is a low, blocked up opening in the outer barn wall.

This is the topp fhasgnaidh, set in line with the other doors to ensure a through-draught for winnowing. The top end of the sabhal is floored with wooden planks as a base for the sheaves. There is a uinneag tughaidh, in the hipped end here. When sheaves were required from the stackyard at the end of the house, it was custom to open up the thatch around the window-opening and pitch the sheaves in there. In the middle section, the smooth clayed floor is adapted for the winnowing and flail threshing of the grain. This was also used as the cuil bhuntata.

On the walls hung the suist, when not in use. The suist had three elements, a lorg, a buailtean, and a sail shuiste to link the other parts. The suist was swung over the shoulder or upper arm to beat out the grain from the ears of the sheaves. Winnowing with a shallow circular criathar, was afterwards necessary to get rid of the chaff and broke straw, before the grain was taken to the kiln to be dried for grinding.

Sickles and scythes, spades, rakes, peat cutting irons, and other small hand tools were also to be found here, as well as barrels and chests to hold food for the hens and animals. When the sheep were clipped in spring, the fleeces were stored here, before being sold.

A wooden partition cuts off the outer part of the barn, which has its own exterior door. This section is called the cuil-nan-othaisgean. Here ewes could shelter at lambing time. The outer and inner barn doors have wooden hinges, and the latch of the door between the barn and stairseach can be opened by means of a peg and a length of string.

There was nothing lavish about the furnishings of a Blackhouse. Functionalism rather than ornamentalism, was the first consideration, and furnishings tend to be substantially but plainly made of wood, painted or varnished a dark colour - usually brown. The best and most characteristic pieces of furniture were the dressers, the long wooden settles, and the box-beds. The typical dresser is open or has two cupboards below, two drawers above and a good working surface for jugs, bowls and other utensils. Behind this is a plate rack, which was not necessarily attached to the dresser. All the furniture was ranged along the sides of the walls, leaving as much working space as possible on the floor around the central hearth.

Here three generations lived together, all entirely Gaelic speaking when on their own, in the context of a Blackhouse that provided ample warmth and shelter. By day the kitchen would be the centre for the everyday domestic jobs of the women, mending clothes, preparing food for themselves, the hens and the calves, washing dishes. But the evening was the great time when the whole family re-assembled, and people dropped in, to sit in social relaxation round the fire, which was the focal point of the whole house. Relaxed, but not necessarily idle, for spinning, wool-winding and knitting kept the women busy, and the men might wind ropes out of freshly pulled heather fronds, or mend a broken creel. During the winter, neighbours would come round each night, form a circle round the fire and discuss many subjects. The fire could be built quite high as there was no risk of a chimney catching the fire.

By all accounts the Island Blackhouses were very warm, and served their purpose well. Functionalism as opposed to ornamentalism, played an important part in the structure of these dwellings. In many ways they were built according to the environment that the inhabitants lived in. Adverse weather conditions and a basic food supply, sustained these dwellers, for whom surviving was a very part of life itself.
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Bibliography:
Fenton, Alexander The Island Blackhouse
Grant, I F Highland Folk Ways
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