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St Kilda, Hirta, Village Bay, Blackhouse G

Blackhouse (19th Century), Rotary Quern (Post Medieval)

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

Classification Blackhouse (19th Century), Rotary Quern (Post Medieval)

Canmore ID 9689

Site Number NF19NW 21.07

NGR NF 10128 99361

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9689

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

Activities

Publication Account (1988)

NF19NW 21.07 10128 99361

This drystone structure lies end-on to the street, and, as with Blackhouse C, there is a smaller, transversely aligned building contiguous with its upper N end. Blackhouse G and its successor, House 7, were occupied by the Gillies family.

The main unit measures 6.76m by 2.9m within walls up to 1.6m thick; the side-walls stand to a height of 1.83m, while the gables are 2.9m high, the external angles of the S end-wall being rounded and the narrower upper parts of the gables being later additions. Cement and tar along the wall-heads indicate the edges of the last roof. The doorway is near the S end of the E side-wall and beneath its paved threshold runs a drain. The lintels of the window-opening a little to the N in the same wall are missing. Two pieces of iron project from the W side-wall near the floor; neither has a ring, but they are likely to have been used for tethering beasts. A drain runs beneath the S end-wall and under the street. At the N end the lower parts of the adjacent inner wall-faces are not bonded, and there is a large lintel-like stone in the N end-wall but no clearly defined associated jambs.

Internally, the N unit measures 3.74m by 2.62m, the walls being up to 1.22m thick and the angles rounded. The doorway, which is at the S end of the E wall, has outer and inner lintels of stone and timber respectively, and contains the post and lintel of a wooden door-frame. At the W end of the interior there is a narrow platform 0.28m high.

Part of the S side-wall, adjacent to the N gable of the main building, collapsed in 1984, revealing part of a lintelled aperture and wall-face within the thickness of the wall. This probably represents the remains of a passage leading into a crib or wall-bed, the newly revealed wall-face probably being part of the inner wall of the bed chamber itself. The chamber was presumably destroyed when the N building was added, and the crib entrance covered or removed when the N wall of the main building was refaced, hence the lack of bonding at the internal angles. This building is noted on Sharbau's plan as having a bed in the wall.

On the E side of the building a paved path leads from the upper doorway past the lower entrance to the street. On the W side a small stream is canalised between Blackhouses G and H and runs through a culvert to emerge on the S side of the street.

G P Stell and M Harman 1988.

Watching Brief (April 2014 - July 2014)

NF 1014 9936 (Blackhouse F) and NF 10128 99361 (Blackhouse G) Two watching briefs were undertaken, April – July 2014, at Village Bay. The first one was undertaken during the removal of post-1957 rubble from the interior of Blackhouse F, as part of ongoing conservation work by volunteer work parties. The removal of this deposit revealed an extremely heterogeneous context of building and household debris including glass, metal, ceramics, coal, and building materials, interpreted as post-occupational dumping or middening. An early 20th-century date for this use, suggested by archival photographs and documentary evidence, was confirmed by the artefacts recovered. The deposit was left in situ and the interior of the blackhouse was returfed. This excavation exemplifies a not uncommon biography of such structures in Village Bay, which have often

seen several phases of repair and changes of use throughout their lifetime.

The other watching brief in the 2014 season was undertaken during a large conservation repair to the S wall and gable of Blackhouse G, which revealed a number of internal infill contexts reflecting previous repairs to the blackhouse from the 19th to the late 20th century. The lowermost layer of soil infill exposed probably dated from the construction of the structure sometime in the 1830s. Although this early context was relatively sterile of finds, the discovery of a graphite stylus is evidence of early education on the island which predates the surviving late Victorian schoolhouse by at least 60 years.

Archive: RCAHMS and Museum nan Eilean. Report: ADS

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland with support from Historic Scotland

Kevin Grant – The National Trust for Scotland

(Source: DES)

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