blackhouse is a traditional type of dwelling, typically long, narrow buildings, with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth in between the stone layers, covered by a roof of wooden rafters over which a thatch of turf was grown, with flagstone floors. PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES My aunt, uncle and I booked a little white pebble-dash cottage on the Isle of Lewis for a week. The island was gloriously windswept, with small hunched trees dotting the peaty landscape and standing stones jutting out of the earth like diseased teeth.
We fuelled ourselves every morning with a hearty bowl of porridge over which we poured generous lashings of Edradour Cream Liqueur for an extra kickstart. On one of the sunnier days, we jumped in the hire car and drove over to the small village of Arnol on the northwest side of Lewis to visit the Blackhouse Museum. Here, we wandered through the ruins of blackhouses, marvelling at the beautiful old structures and archaeological excavations.
A blackhouse is a traditional type of dwelling which used to be common across Ireland, the Hebrides and the Scottish Highlands. Blackhouse buildings were typically long, narrow buildings, with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth in between the stone layers, covered by a roof of wooden rafters over which a thatch of turf was grown. This thatch would be secured with old fishing nets or twine, which was attached to large rocks to hold everything in place.
The floors were created from flagstones or in many cases, .
