Hebridean Housing and Settlement

Traditional Hebridean housing covered a range of structures. Whilst we have a reasonably detailed grasp of some forms, there are still gaps in the record. The gap in field evidence from the late Norse period down to the late eighteenth century is the most significant and a major obstacle to any current attempt to construct a detailed and continuous history of peasant housing though some recent studies have started to confront the problem directly. Overall, the prime themes for any review of traditional peasant housing in the region and the basis of discussion here are whether there were changes in scale and plan over the medieval and early modern period, whether there were changes in the raw materials used, whether houses were subject to regular changes as roof timbers and other timbers were removed at the end of what were short-term occupancies, whether they were more regularly unroofed in order to use their roof thatch and turf as manure, whether byres or the style of the blackhouse were longstanding features everywhere or only present in those limited areas that housed stock over winter and, finally, how was Hebridean housing arranged as a settlement form.