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St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Blackhouse J

Blackhouse (Post Medieval)

Site Name St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Blackhouse J

Classification Blackhouse (Post Medieval)

Canmore ID 139390

Site Number NF19NW 21.31

NGR NF 10095 99357

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/139390

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Western Isles
  • Parish Harris
  • Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
  • Former District Western Isles
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

Activities

Field Visit (August 2014)

Not a blackhouse at all, this building stands immediately adjacent to House 9 on the street and although built in drystone, its masonry is more akin to that of the houses of the 1860s than those of the 1830s. With ‘Blackhouse’ I, this building represents the remnants of a mill erected c1862, to be used with an ‘American hand-milling machine’ which was never delivered (SAS Mss 158; Harman 1997, 109; Johnstone 1998, 21; Fleming 2005, 148). It may well have been occupied by a widow or a cottar in later years.

It measures 4.69m from N to S by 2.31m transversely within walls between 1.1m and 1.2m in thickness. While the walls are unusually high at 2.14m, the N wall is set into the slope giving an external height of only 1.4m. The external corners on the W side are squared, and there are straight joints indicating that both the N and S end-walls extended E in an earlier phase. There is a doorway in the E wall and a large window in the N wall. The masonry surrounding the window opening has been mortared suggesting it is a later insertion.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM, JM) August 2014.

Measured Survey (28 August 2014)

RCAHMS surveyed Blackhouse J (NF19 NW 21.31), Village Bay, St Kilda on 28 August 2014 with plane-table and alidade at a scale of 1:100. The resultant plan was redrawn in vector graphics software and published at a scale of 1:200 (Gannon and Geddes 2015, 106).

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