This is a restored “blackhouse” on the Isle of Eigg, off the west coast of Scotland, where we spent a week in May, 2016. Some time in the future, if I can get time off, we plan to go to Scotland and visit several of the islands. The Scots are the nicest, most friendly people I’ve encountered anywhere in the world.
Blackhouses were the dwellings of “crofters” or farmers on Scottish Islands, in the Highlands, and Ireland.
From Wikipedia: “(They) … were generally built with double-wall dry-stone walls packed with earth, and were roofed with 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 through. Instead the smoke made its way through the roof. This led to the soot blackening of the interior which may also have contributed to the adoption of name blackhouse.…”
That’s a very characterful building – nice photo.The rust streaks on the doorpost are very typical!
I’d say a crofter is a bit different from a farmer – in general a croft has never been able to support a family on its own, it’s too small given the productivity of the land. Crofting has always meant combining small scale farming with something else – the classic combination is farming and fishing.
In England cottage and cottager once had a similar meaning, but that changed a long time ago.
It’s like my cottage on a mountain in Ireland
I lost it through divorce
I want it and yearn for it
It’s in coore East Miltown Malbay in Wild West co Clare