Skye Cottage

Skye Cottage

ID: PC_JMSTRACHAN_139 DESCRIPTION: The black house is a traditional type of house which used to be common in Highland Scotland, the Hebrides, Ireland and areas of Gaelic settlement in Nova Scotia. The buildings were generally built with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth and wooden rafters covered with a thatch of turf with cereal straw or reed. The floor was generally flagstones or packed earth and there was a central hearth for the fire. There was no chimney for the smoke to escape though. Instead the smoke made its way through the roof. The black house was used to accommodate livestock as well as people. People lived at one end and the animals lived at the other with a partition between them. DISTRICT: Skye OLD COUNTY/PARISH: INVERNESS CREATOR (AV): JM Strachan SOURCE: J I R Martin Asset ID: 28987 KEYWORDS: