The Development of Traditional Housing in the Isle of Lewis: Social and Cultural

Influences on Vernacular Architecture

Author(s): Catriona Mackie
Source: Béaloideas , 2006, Iml. 74 (2006), pp. 65-102
Published by: An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20520901

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society is collaborating with JSTOR to

digitize, preserve and extend access to Béaloideas

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 The Development of Traditional Housing in the
Isle of Lewis:
Social and Cultural Influences on Vernacular
Architecture
Catriona Mackie

Introduction
Focusing on a crofting township on the West Side of the Isle of
Lewis, this paper looks at the changing traditions of house building
and occupation in relation to contemporary social and cultural
changes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since
the 1960s it has been accepted that while the physical environment
influences the design of the vernacular house to a certain extent, it is
the socio-cultural environment that determines the finished product.
It can therefore be deduced that socio-cultural changes over time
may be reflected in the changing house. This paper examines the
effect of socio-cultural change on housing in the township of Bragar
over a two-hundred year period, and focuses not only on the
physical aspects of change, but on the process of change itself.'

The Thatched Houses of the Hebrides

Previous research undertaken by the author identified a number of
islands off the west coast of Scotland which shared a common
housing tradition (Plate 1).2 At the beginning of the twentieth

1 This paper is based on research undertaken for a PhD entitled The Development of
the Lewis House in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, with Particular
Emphasis on the Bragar Township', University of Edinburgh 2006.
2 Unpublished MSc thesis, entitled Taighean nan Eilean Siar, a' toirt a-steach Hiort
agus Tiriodh', submitted under the present author's Gaelic surname 'NicAoidh',
Department of Celtic, University of Edinburgh 2000.

Bealoideas 74 (2006) 65

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
66 CATRIONA MACKIE

The Outer Hebrides

St. Kilda

North Uist

South UistIvrns
Baa 3 Aberdeen

Plate 1: The Outer Hebrides.3

century, a similar type of housing

the Outer Hebrides (these being Le
the Uists and Barra in the south), a
and St. Kilda. These houses had th
walls, consisting of an inner and
between them filled with earth an
roofs of the houses were thatched
the inner wall, leaving a broad out
the tobhta, on which the men wou
roof (Plate 2). The walls were ther
between four and eight feet. This
Scotland, and it is the thickness an
that distinguishes it from most of
the time. What I found, however, w
to say that this particular type of
islands at the beginning of the twent

3 All Plates by the author unless otherwise st

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 67

an drnd
an tughadh roof ridge an cabar-droma
the thg/ thie :roof-ftre

th uf themof timbers
an taobhan ard / \ na ceagail
the upper purliin the couples
an taobhan losa l/ na h-acraic*ean
the lower purlin the anchor stones

Plate 2: Short section through a house.

t t ~~Byre Dwelling ,

Plate 3: Simple byre-dwelling plan.

these islands made up one distinct typological

distinct housing types could be found within th
islands of Skye, Uist, Barra, Tiree, St. Kilda, and
The most basic form of the house seems to h
roomed byre-dwelling with the door in the lon
the byre-end of the house which was an ceann s
(Plate 3). The people lived in the upper end of t
shuas, and in the centre of this living area was the

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
68 CATRIONA MACKIE

The walls were rounded at each end, so a

wind, and there was a distinct batter in the o
thicker at the base than at the wall-head. T
set back from the edge of the wall and ha
protect it from being lifted by the wind. The
end, in other words there were no gables,
down by ropes which in turn were weigh
wall-head (Plate 4).
The floors were of earth and clay. This b
probably have been found in all of these H
time, and it survived without too much
nineteenth century in many areas, existin
larger and more developed houses. D
construction and layout of the houses, ho
uniform throughout the islands.
In Skye and in the Uists, for example, w
walls being introduced and becoming mor
double-skinned counterparts. In Skye, tim

Plate 4: Reconstructed Norse Mills at Shawbost, on th

the method of fixing and securing the thatch

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 69

support the roof, as was common on the mainland throughout the

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - however this was not
seen in the Uists.4 In Tiree the lack of peat on the island meant that
coal was introduced very early on and this resulted in the fire being
moved from the centre of the floor to the end wall, and the
introduction of chimneys, much earlier than in the other islands.
Also in Tiree, although the byre-dwelling may have been common
at one time, by the second half of the nineteenth century, the cattle
were being housed in an adjoining byre with a separate door.
Likewise, any ancillary buildings such as barns or stables were
situated alongside the main living area but were not connected to it
in any way, each having its own external door (Plate 5).
In Barra recent archaeological excavation has shown that in all
likelihood animals were commonly housed either in an adjoining
byre, as in Tiree, or in a separate byre nearby.6 There was a strong
outside influence on housing on St. Kilda which resulted in new
houses being built in 1834 through charitable donations, and again
in 1860 after a storm destroyed the new dwellings.7 The houses on

L Barn t 5 Byre , Te Dwellinge.5

Plate 5: Croft-house, Tiree.5

4 J. Walton, The Skye House', Antiquity 31 (1957), 155-62; I. Crawford,

'Contributions to a History of Domestic Settlement in North Uist', Scottish Studies 9
(1965), 34-65; B. Walker, Traditional Dwellings of the Uists', Highland Vernacular
Building, Edinburgh 1989, 50-70.
5 After A. Boyd, Seann Taighean Tirisdeach, Tiree 1996, 15.
6 K. Branigan, From Clan to Clearance: History and Archaeology on the Isle of
Barra, c. 850-1850 AD, Oxford 2005; K. Branigan and C. Merrony, The Hebridean
Blackhouse on the Isle of Barra', Scottish Archaeological Journal 22, no. 1 (2000), 1
16.
7M. Harman, An Isle Called Hirte, Waternish 1997, 150; J. B. MacKenzie, 'Episode
in the Life of the Rev. Neil MacKenzie of St. Kilda from 1829-1843', Aberfeldy
1911.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
70 CATRIONA MACKIE

r~~Br

t ~~~Byrne Dwellin.g |

i tFostn- (Porch)) 1

Plate 6: Plan of mid-nineteenth century house, South Bragar, Lewis.

St. Kilda conformed to the basic one-roomed byre-dwelling,

although even in the pre-1834 houses there was a four feet high
stone partition wall between the people and the cattle - something
that was not common elsewhere until much later on. The Lewis
houses, as we shall see shortly, were different still, with ancillary
rooms being added parallel to the main byre-dwelling unit rather
than alongside it as was common elsewhere (Plate 6).

The Influence of Society and Culture on Housing

Previous accounts of traditional housing in these areas have tended
to be descriptive rather than explanatory, and where authors have
ventured to offer explanations for either the construction or the
layout of the houses, these have generally been made in terms of
environment. While some aspects of the houses certainly have
environmental advantages, they are not wholly environmental
constructions. During the first half of the twentieth century, it was
generally accepted that traditional housing was a product of
environment - a particular landscape, a particular climate, and

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 71

locally available materials. However, in studies of vernacular

architecture all over the world, and in various disciplines, it is now
accepted that although buildings may be well adapted to the
environment, their form is not dictated by it. There is now strong
evidence to suggest that in all areas, culture is the strongest
influential factor in the design of the house.
Although shelter was the main aim of early house builders, the
house was more than just a shelter, and houses from the earliest
times show a definite architecture, no matter how simple. Every
culture has its own building tradition, and indeed this building
tradition is part of what defines the culture. To quote the architect
Amos Rapoport, from his seminal work, House Form and Culture:
'If provision of shelter is the passive function of the house, then its
positive purpose is the creation of an environment best suited to the
way of life of a people - in other words, a social unit of space.'8
Houses, and vernacular architecture in general, are not just a
product of environment, they are also a manifestation of a particular
society and culture. They are a product of what French geographer
Vidal de la Blache called 'genre de vie'.9 By 'genre de vie' Vidal de
la Blache was talking about a concept which embraced all the
activities of a group or an individual - both material and spiritual -
their ideologies, their traditions, their way of life, their social
structure and behaviour, and their economic situation. Houses and
settlements can therefore be seen as 'physical expressions of genre
de vie'.10 When we see changes occurring in settlement layout, or in
housing design, what we are actually seeing are the effects of a
changing genre de vie. In order to fully understand housing change,

8 A. Rapoport, House Form and Culture, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 1969, 46.

9 P. Vidal de la Blache, 'Les Genres de Vie dans la G?ographie Humaine', Annales de
G?ographie 20 (1911), 193-212, 289-304. Vidal de la Blache died six years later and
it was not until 1948 that another French geographer, Max Sorre, published an article
in the same journal, in which he expands on Vidal de la Blache's theory, using
contemporary examples: M. Sorre, 'La Notion de Genre de Vie et sa Valeur Actuelle',
Annales de G?ographie 57 (1948), 97-108, 193-204. This was later published, in
English, as 'The Concept of Genre de Vie', in P. L. Wagner and M. W. Mikesell (eds.),
Readings in Cultural Geography, Chicago 1962, 399-415.
10 Rapoport, op. cit., 47.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
72 CATRIONA MACKIE

we therefore have to look beyond the envir

culture and society of the people.
The influence of society and culture on v
however, is only one half of a two-wa
embodiment of social and cultural values,
environment as a whole) plays an active rol
these values in everyday life. The idea
influence their built environment, but that t
turn, influences people, is one that has
number of scholars within a variety o
Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in his study
described the house as a 'book' which 'is rea
through the movements and displacement
within which they are enacted as much as t
is his contention that children growing
automatically absorb the notions an
relationships that exist within that society
to the relationships between genders. Thi
'non-verbal communication': an effectiv
culture and tradition between generations,
the built form.13 The house, therefo
component of the material culture world'"4
the discerning researcher with a 'window' o
culture, at any given point in time.
This reflexive relationship betwee
environment and the built environment m
learn about the society and culture of a p
built environment (including their houses
the built environment by placing it in its soc

11 For example, Rapoport, op. cit.; I. Hodder Symbols i

Studies of Material Culture, Cambridge 1982; B. Hill
Logic of Space, Cambridge 1984; and R. Water
Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia, Oxfo
12 P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambr
13 A. Rapoport, The Meaning of the Built Environmen
Approach, Beverly Hills 1982.
14 D. W. Bailey The Living House: Signifying Contin
Social Archaeology of Houses, Edinburgh 1990, 19-48

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 73

This is particularly true when dealing with vernacular architecture

because the society and culture of the people are more accurately
portrayed in their built environment than is often the case in a
modern society.

Settlement Change and Housing Continuity in Lewis during the

Nineteenth Century
The present research focused on the development of housing in one
of these islands, the Isle of Lewis, over a two-hundred year period,
with a view to investigating the extent to which social and cultural
change brought about and influenced housing change in the island
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lewis was chosen
above the other islands primarily because more physical evidence
exists in that island than in any other, and also because most of the
Lewis houses remained inhabited until the early-to-mid-twentieth
century, longer than in most of the other islands, and there are
therefore many islanders alive today who were brought up in these
houses.
As the development of housing in Lewis differed between
townships and districts in the island, as shall be shown below, I
decided that the fieldwork should be limited to one township, that of
Bragar (consisting of North and South Bragar) on the west side of
Lewis (Plate 7). Bragar, and indeed the west side, was chosen as the
focus of this study due to the number and the condition of the ruins
in the area, and their accessibility. This side of the island has
arguably undergone less change than many, if not most, of the east
coast areas, possibly due to its distance from the main town of
Stornoway - some fifteen miles across the island. Most of the
buildings in Bragar were abandoned as houses in the early-to-mid
twentieth century, after grants and loans were introduced by the
Board of Agriculture to encourage people to build new houses, and
although some of the old houses have since been destroyed, the
remains of houses spanning at least two hundred years can still be
seen in the township.
The research comprised a number of different approaches. To
examine how the size and layout of the houses had changed over

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
74 CATRIONA MACKIE

Plate 7: Lewis and Harris.

time, I surveyed and measured forty-one

drew up plans and, using map-evidence
chronological time phases ranging from th
early twentieth century. Information abo
collected from the people who still live in
whom were brought up in these houses. T
about the construction and development of
genre de vie, and also stories that had bee
oral tradition that might shed light on som
that are still standing. I also interviewed
Lewis who did not live in Bragar, but who
island for their knowledge of island his
housing. A wide variety of published sourc

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 75

their accounts of housing on the island, and of the changing genre

de vie.
The early nineteenth century houses in Lewis seem to have
consisted of at least three, and sometimes four, basic units (Plate 8).
The main unit, which was also the largest, was the byre-dwelling
unit. The houses were usually built on a slope, with the byre in the
lower end, to allow for the drainage of liquid manure through a
small drain in the end wall of the byre, away from the living area.
At this time, the cattle would have taken up the greater portion,
around two thirds, of the byre-dwelling unit. There was no partition
between the byre and the living area, except perhaps a row of
stones, although the byre end of the house was usually excavated to
a depth of between one and five feet, to allow for the accumulation
of manure from autumn to spring, when the cattle were housed
indoors. The manure was removed in the spring, when the cattle
went to the summer pastures, and used as fertilizer on the crops.
To one side of the byre dwelling unit was the fosglan, which
may be loosely translated as 'porch', and it was through the fosglan
that the house was entered. Entry to the byre-dwelling unit was
through the byre. Cattle and humans both used the same door, with

North

lIV 1. fosglan
2. byre-dwelling
2a. byre-end
u L 2 f-> 2b. living-end
3. barn
4. taigh-fhuaraich

2b ~~~~a. winnowing hole or

low door

Plate 8: Plan of early nineteenth-century house, South Bragar, Lewis.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
76 CATRIONA MACKIE

the people having to walk sometimes the

reach the living area. On the other side
was the barn, which was also usually ent
was used for storing food and fodder, as w
Some houses had another unit, the taigh-f
the 'cold room' or 'upper room', which wa
area, and could be used for storage and as
The hearth was on the floor in the mid
There were no chimneys or windows in t
was often a small hole or two in the base
some of the smoke, and to let in some of
allowed to seep out through the thatc
annually and spread on the potatoes (whi
the time) as fertilizer.
There was little by way of furniture in
because timber was very scarce, coming
Beds were either made up on the floor, o
(Plate 9). Stools were generally made of
were sometimes made by resting planks
stones or on two piles of turf. In some ca
were used as seats.16
These houses are often referred to as 'b
'taigh-dubh', although there is some deba
term, and indeed whether it originated
Popular theory has it that the term was coin
of the term 'white-house', which descr
houses that were presumably originally lim

15 The two names for this room arose from the fact
are pronounced the same. This has led to differenc
meaning of the name.
16 Much information about the mid-nineteenth
gleaned from articles written by Captain. F. W.
companion Sir Arthur Mitchell, who visited Lewis
scarce in the mid nineteenth century, it may be as
early nineteenth century also. See F. W. L. Thomas
Hypogea of the Outer Hebrides', Proceedings of
Scotland 1 (1867), 153-95; A. Mitchell, The Past in t
Edinburgh 1880.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 77

Plate 9: Cra~b, or bed-recess in Taigh Choininich Mhic Ruairidh, South Bragar, Lewis.

white. The term 'black-house' was certainly in use in Lewis by the

early nineteenth century. '7
The early nineteenth century settlements in Lewis were situated
along the coast and around the many sea-lochs (Plate 10). The
arable land was farmed in a system called 'runrig' [rundale] whereby
a group of tenants farmed the surrounding arable land together. A
number of these, what may be called joint-farms', made up a
township. Each tenant on the joint-farm was allocated a plot, or
plots of land to farm, and these plots were re-allocated among them
every few years so that every tenant had his share of the best and

17 While it is generally accepted that the term 'black-house' was introduced in the
mid-nineteenth century, during the course of this research, I came across a letter
amongst the Seaforth Muniments, dated March/April 1819, and addressed to Mr
Stewart MacKenzie, who was the owner of Lewis from 1824 to 1844, and whose
wife owned the island at the time of writing. The letter, from P. Degraves, reads: 'I
showed Mr Brown a plan I intended to have carried into effect if I had remained in
the Highlands and with which he seemed much pleased, it was a substitute for a
black house [...]' (National Archives of Scotland, GD46/17/51). This term was
therefore obviously in common usage, at least amongst the upper classes, during the
early nineteenth century.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
78 CATRIONA MACKIE

Plate 10: Early nineteenth-century settlement in

worst land. The grazing land was held in co

seasonal jobs, such as cutting peat for fue
done in common.
As well as working the land, fishing playe
the daily lives of the people. During most of
herring fishing produced the most prolif
suffered a period of decline towards the en
shoals began to move eastwards. The main
late eighteenth and the early nineteenth c
kelp industry. It is not known when kelp s
great quantities in Lewis, but from aro
industry grew until by the late eightee
succeeded horses and cattle as the main exp
Kelp-making was an arduous task involv
burning of seaweed to make calcinated ash
produce iodine and soap, among other thin
job and many islanders were forced into th

18 Based on Alexander Gibbs's 1817 map of Lewis, wh

Chapman's 1807-9 survey of the island.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 79

could be fined or even evicted if they refused to produce kelp for

the proprietor.19 During the eighteenth century the proprietors of
Lewis took full advantage of this new-found source of income and
subsequently raised the island's rental so that tenants could ill-afford
not to take up work making kelp, in order to pay their increased
rents.
By the late eighteenth century, however, landowners in the
Highlands and Islands were beginning to see the effects of
agricultural improvement that was being carried out in the Scottish
Lowlands. The Agricultural Revolution in Scotland, with its roots in
the Scottish Enlightenment, aided by rapid industrial expansion,
quickly spread north. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, Lewis was owned by Francis Humberston MacKenzie,
one of a long line of MacKenzie owners, stretching back to 1610,
and it was he who first decided to re-lot the island. It was
MacKenzie's intention that each tenant should have his own plot of
land, which he would farm and on which he would build his house.
There would be no rotation of land among the inhabitants, although
the township would still hold grazing land in common. In this way
the runrig system of farming was abolished, and the crofting
system, which is still in place today, was introduced. In Bragar,
tenants were made to build new houses on the lots allocated to
them, and to bring under cultivation these new plots of land (Plate
11).
While agricultural improvement was certainly about enhancing
productivity, and consequently income, through the introduction of
better farming techniques and practices, it was also about civilising
the agricultural population. The benefit of Enlightenment thinking
was that achieving the first desire would automatically lead to
improvement in the second, and that the second was most easily
acquired by focusing on the first. In other words, a landowner more
interested in 'improving' his own income, through the introduction
of sheep farms or specific crops, was also seen to be 'improving' the
overall condition of his tenants, by bringing them into the civilised

19 F. H. MacKenzie, 'Articles and Conditions of Set for the Island of Lewis, 1795',
National Archives of Scotland, GD46/1/277.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 80 CATRIONA MACKIE

'' s1 ''' *'S * >r?--' sR

I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t

'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

* '' ?1 *r>S o * " <.^Zb

- - - - --Pre-Lotting houses late 18th/early 19th century

- - - - - Houses pf the First Lotting - late 18th /early 19th century. under F. H. M
Houses of the Second Lotting - mid 19th century, under James Matheson

Plate 11: The three phases of settlement in Bragar.20

world. Improvement was therefore not only

advantageous to a landowner, but also socially adv
terms of the prestige it brought him among his 'enlight
Although the farming practices of the tenants ma
changed considerably with the abolition of runrig, as
worked their own plot of land and certain activities c
carried out in common, the process of lotting
apportionment of the land, broke up individu
communities and imposed a new, linear spatial order
of the settlement. This, in turn, affected the str
community and reinforced the implementation of a n
which favoured individualism over community.

20 Ordnance Survey map, 1853.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 81

The earliest attempt to encourage tenants in Lewis to improve

their houses, was by F. H. MacKenzie's successor, James Alexander
Stewart MacKenzie, who was owner of the island from 1824 to
1844. In the Articles of Set and Regulations for the Tenants of Land
in Lewis, probably written by Stewart MacKenzie sometime around
1830, it is stipulated, among other things, that every house should
have two doors - one for the tenants, and one for the cattle - and a
partition between the byre and the living area.21 According to the
minister of Stornoway at the time, these changes were 'sorely
against the will of the people',22 and Stewart MacKenzie's
stipulations for housing improvement seem to have been generally
ignored.
In 1844, the island was sold to James Matheson, originally from
Sutherland in the north of Scotland, who had made his fortune in the
east trading in opium. He, too, was keen to implement
Improvement, and almost immediately set about re-lotting and re
renting the island. In Bragar, he rearranged the position of the lots,
requiring the tenants, once again, to build new houses, and to bring
under cultivation different plots of land (Plate 11).
As well as re-lotting and re-renting the island, re-claiming peat
land, introducing roads, and various other developments in the main
town of Stornoway, Matheson was also extremely interested in
education, and in social and cultural reform. He seems to have taken
every opportunity to berate the crofters about their backward
agricultural practices, their standards of cleanliness (being, in his
opinion, next to godliness), the lack of segregation between the
sexes at night, and the general position of women in Lewis society.
In a speech to islanders at the opening of a new schoolhouse in the
north of Lewis, Matheson urged the men to

do away with the stain on the Lewsman's character, in your habit of

making the woman, who is the weaker vessel, do so much of the hard
work and heavy manual labour - carrying heavy burdens, and often
carrying their husbands on their backs across rivers or arms of the

21 National Archives of Scotland GD46/15/260.

22 New Statistical Account, Vol. 14, Ross and Cromarty, Edinburgh and London 1841,
129.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 82 CATRIONA MACKIE

sea. A man should be ashamed to see a woma

he, himself, is standing idle. It is only in the
that such a state of things can exist.23

It was believed at this time, that impro

to improvements in all other areas of life.
some that improvements in all other area
place without improved housing. Lord Nap
Royal Commission on the Housing of the W
that,
If the people in the Highlands and islands are on the whole healthy
and moral, it is in spite of the condition of their dwellings, and in
consequence of certain counteracting influences in their lives; and if
they had better dwellings, one of the natural impediments to health
and to morality (though not very operative) would be removed. If
they had better dwellings we may presume that they might be more
healthy and more moral. But, besides that, it is to be considered that
better dwellings would introduce into the lives of the people, I think,
greater comfort, greater serenity, and greater sources of general ease
and welfare.
He continues:
You could not have the present dwellings with improved cultivation,
and you could not have improved cultivation with the present
buildings. If agricultural improvements, fencing, gardening, and
improvements of that sort, are to be introduced, it can only be done in
connexion with improved dwellings and improved farm offices or
habitations for the stock. In fact, improved dwellings must go on pari
passu with all other improvements; and no great social elevation or
economical development can take place in the Highlands and islands,
to my mind, without improved dwellings.24

Matheson's first set of regulations for the Lewis Estate, was

published in 1849. Like Stewart MacKenzie before him, Matheson
wanted tenants to introduce a partition between the byre and the
living area, and a separate door for the cattle. He also wanted there

23 Sir James Matheson's Address to the Pupils, with their Parents and Others, who
Attended at the Opening of the New School House, Erected by Him at Lionel, in the
Parish of B arv as, and Island of Lews, 12th October 1869, Edinburgh.
24 Second Report (Scotland) of the Commissioners on the Housing of the Working
Classes with Minutes of Evidence, Appendices and Indices, 1884-85, London 1885,
104, 105.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 83

to be 'separate sleeping spaces' for the unmarried men and women.25

Once again, improvement was resisted, despite Matheson's offer of
leases for those tenants who complied with the fifty-four stipulated
regulations. Anderson Smith commented that he had met an old man
in Ness who 'laughed heartily at the document sagely remarking that
he could not keep ten commandments for a mansion in the sky,
much less fifty-four for a black house in the Lews'.26
While some houses were improved during this time, with the
introduction of partitions, windows, a chimney, and an extra door,
they soon reverted to their former state, with partitions being pulled
down, and doors, windows, and chimneys being blocked up.27
By the 1860s, therefore, tenants had twice re-built their houses
but with little effective 'Improvement' in the eyes of the authorities.
Houses still had no windows, no chimneys, no partitions, and only
one door. In his Report on the State of Popular Education in the
Hebrides, Sheriff Alexander Nicolson reported in 1866 that, in
Lewis,
[t]he practice of housing the cattle under the same roof with the
human family still prevails to a very large extent. Attempts have been
made by Sir James to encourage the rearing of partition walls
between the two divisions of the establishment, and prizes have been
offered for the best kept dwellings. These benevolent efforts have,
however, had little effect as yet, the immovable attachment to old
ways, simply as such, making the people prefer the mode of life
practised by their fathers to anything different, however obviously
better. In no part of the Hebrides, indeed, has there been so little
improvement on old habits. 28
Furniture was also still scanty, although there is evidence to
suggest that wooden box beds and wooden dressers had become
more common, but were not to be found in every house.29 Tables
and chairs were still considered a luxury, as Nicolson himself
discovered:
25 J. Matheson, Rules of the Lews Estate, 1849.
26 W. Anderson Smith, Lewsiana, Paisley 1886, 53.
21 Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry into the Condition of the
Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands of Scotland, with Appencices, and Evidence,
Vol. 2, Edinburgh 1884, 3304.
28 A. Nicolson Report on the State of Education in the Hebrides, Edinburgh 1866, 12.
29E.g. Thomas op. cit., Mitchell op. cit..

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
84 CATRIONA MACKIE

Visiting one of these dwellings with a fr

occupants, the old woman who did the honou
time accommodated us with stools, humbly
absence of 'the chair'. My friend inquired wh
whereupon the venerable woman gave a full an
it had been lent to a neighbour on the occasi
minister, and had progressed from house t
purpose, and had not yet retumed.30

In 1879, Matheson's second set of Rules

published.31 This time he went further, stating
have at least two compartments (a living are
with a window in the wall of each, and th
chimney or some other method of smoke ext
that the thatch was not to be stripped from
fertilizer, and that the manure should be remov
regular basis, to a dung-heap outside. Again,
to comply, and by the mid-1880s, most hous
partition between the byre and the living area,
one doorway, which led into the byre, where
accumulate over the winter.
Towards the end of the nineteenth centur
Islands came to the notice of various nation
result that, in the 1880s and the 1890s, a nu
commissioned, to look at various aspects o
life. The most notable, and arguably the mo
was the Royal Commission of Inquiry into
Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands an
which was established in 1883, under the lead
(hereafter referred to as the Napier Com
population had left the Highlanders short of
sub-division of lots among extended familie
houses on common grazing land. Requests to
more land, particularly land which had be
decades earlier (usually without reduction in

30Nicolson, op. cit., 12.

31 The 1879 Rules and Regulations were published in
Matheson himself had died in France the year before, age

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 85

sheep or deer, had been refused, and crofters had begun to take
matters into their own hands by settling themselves and their stock
on land which had been taken from them. The Napier Commission
was established as a result of this land agitation, which had begun in
Lewis in 1874, and had spread throughout the Highlands, gaining
support for the crofters from all over Scotland, and further afield,
from the ranks of the upper, middle, and lower social classes alike.
During 1883 and 1884, the Commissioners travelled throughout
the Highlands and Islands, gathering evidence from crofters, other
tenants, and land-owners, on the situation of land-holding, fishing,
communication, education, justice, emigration, and, to some extent,
housing. The Commissioners' report, published in 1884, led to the
establishment of the Crofters Holdings Act of 1886. Under this Act,
crofters were to be granted 'security of tenure, a fixed fair rent,
compensation for improvements, and facilities for the enlargement
of holdings'.32 It also led to the formation of the Crofters
Commission, under whose jurisdiction the Land Court fell. The
Land Court had powers to fix rents and compensation, and also to
cancel arrears. In Lewis, over ?30,000 of arrears were cancelled (an
average of over ?11 per tenant) and the total rental was reduced by
almost thirty-two per cent.33
The significance of the Crofters Act, however, is not so much its
effect on housing, as its lack of such effect. Evidence given before
the Napier Commission and before the Housing of the Working
Classes Commission, in 1884 and 1885, suggested that the main
impediments to improved housing in the Highlands and Islands,
were the lack of security of tenure on tenants' holdings, the increase
in rent for any improvements undertaken by the tenant, and the lack
of fair compensation for improvements if and when tenants had to
leave the holding.
In fact, the Crofters Act only went so far in alleviating the
conditions of the general population, and it did little to address the

32 J. P. Day, Public Administration in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, London

1918, 190.
33 Report to the Secretary for Scotland by the Crofters Commission on the Social
Condition of the People of Lewis in 1901 as Compared with Twenty Years Ago,
Glasgow 1902.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 86 CATRIONA MACKIE

growing problem of landlessness. Those

houses on their parents' lots (known as cot
their houses on the common grazings (kn
still considered illegal tenants and co
proprietor's request. As it happened, in
Bragar is situated, this was less of a proble
of the cottars and squatters had in fact b
ledger in 1881, leaving only eighty-seven
In addition, although crofters were to be
there were conditions attached to them, o
must not, without the landlord's consent,
lots, or build more dwelling-houses on the
in land was forthcoming, in many cases c
to subdivide their lots, or to overcrowd t
family, thereby forfeiting their security of
The failings of the Crofters Act, howev
explain the lack of housing improvement
late nineteenth century, and depend on the p
willing to improve if only they had secu
compensation. There certainly were cases
from their holdings after carrying out impr
compensation, however there is relatively
that crofters themselves complained about
as a barrier to improvement. As it was, th
crofters seem to have been the lack of av
rents.35 In addition, there is evidence that t
leases did not, in many cases, improve
twenty years later, the most improve
townships were found to belong to squat
houses on the township's common grazin
the proprietor, and who, therefore, had no s

34 Crofters and Cottars, op. cit., 957'. It is unclear wh

or by accident.
35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.; Anderson Smith, op. cit.; Report to the Local Government Board for Scotland
on the Sanitary Condition of the Lews, 1905, National Archives of Scotland,
AF42/2768.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 87

the evidence suggests that while the Crofters Act may have removed
one of the barriers to improvement, there were still other barriers in
place that prevented many tenants from improving their houses at
this time.
In 1889, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, local
administration was taken out of the hands of the landed gentry, and
given to the newly elected County Councils. With this change of
authority, from proprietor to government, came a change in
motivation. The motivating factor behind the authorities' drive to
improve housing in Lewis, and throughout the Highlands and
Islands, was no longer social and cultural reform, through civilising
a backward tenantry, but was now focused squarely on health and
sanitation.
To begin with, the local authorities had no more success in
encouraging housing improvement in Lewis than Matheson or
MacKenzie before them. In 1895 the Lewis District Committee
introduced a set of building bye-laws advocating, among other
things, the removal of the fire to a partition wall separating the byre
from the living area.37 But these, too, were ignored by tenants, and
never successfully implemented by the Committee, who had neither
the staff nor the money, nor possibly the will, to go against the
tenants' wishes in this matter.

Motivations For Change

The issues surrounding tenants' reluctance to improve their houses
during the nineteenth century are many and complex. This section
will briefly touch on some of the issues relating to motivation for
change.
In order for tenants to willingly improve their houses there
would have had to be some incentive for them to do so. There seem
to be two forms of motivation for material culture change -
necessity and advantage.

31 Bye-laws as to Regulation of Buildings, Stornoway, National Archives of Scotland,

AF67/349.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 88 CATRIONA MACKIE

Some types of change are born out of n

certain change might be perceived to
particular problem or to ensure the s
community. Within this category of nec
'external force'. An example of this w
settlement shifts in Lewis. Tenants would
to re-build their houses on the lots allocat
resisted, they would have been left with
without their livelihood. Change, in this c
Change might also be implemented, how
to be either materially or socially advant
introduction of electricity might be seen to
while changes in decor might be pe
advantageous.
The tenants in Lewis in the nineteenth century, had no
motivation to change or 'improve' their houses. None of the
modifications the authorities desired were perceived by the tenants
as being necessary, and many them would in fact have been socially,
culturally, and environmentally disadvantageous. The house was
still very much connected to the agricultural cycle, reflected in the
accumulation of manure in the byre and the annual stripping of the
thatch. To remove the manure to a dung-heap outside the house
would have allowed the rain to wash away the nutrients. The
introduction of a chimney would have taken out of the house the
smoke necessary to prepare the thatch for fertilizer. Partitioning the
house, and moving the central hearth to a gable wall would have
disrupted the use of space within the house. The hearth was very
important in this society. The fire was never allowed to go out, and
all activities within the house took place around the hearth. It was
important for heat, light, and cooking; it dried clothes and food, it
kept the fabric of the house dry, and it was important socially -
people gathered round the fire at night to tell stories and sing songs
and to exchange news. Cattle were also extremely important in
Lewis society at this time, both for milk and for meat, and having
them in the house was undoubtedly the easiest and most effective
way to keep a close eye on them, particularly given the inclement
weather. But it was also considered important that the cattle were

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 89

able to see the fire, and it was said that the hens (also housed in the
byre) laid more eggs when they benefited from the heat of the
hearth.38 Environmentally, an upright window, and the introduction
of an extra door, would only serve to weaken that face of the house
to the weather.
In 1884, the Napier Commission recognised that improved
housing would not be successfully attained by, as they put it,
'precipitate and imperative legislation', but rather by 'mutual
assistance, keeping in view the resources at the disposal of the
proprietor, and the means, the habits, and the desires of the tenant'.39
Although the authorities during the nineteenth century realised that
education, expansion in communication, and exposure to good
examples, would increase the speed of socio-cultural change on the
island, rather than waiting for the seeds of such change to grow and
develop spontaneously into material changes, they tried to
implement such changes directly, through estate regulations and
public speeches, with very little attention being paid to 'the means,
the habits, and the desires' of the tenants. In this way, the authorities
ran the risk of alienating the tenantry and fostering in them
resentment towards authoritarian beliefs and regulations. As the
Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes astutely
observed in 1885, Matheson's provision for housing improvement,
by way of his Rules and Regulations, amounted to nothing more
than: 'a gracious permission to the tenants to build themselves a
house at their own expense'.40
The issue of settlement change versus housing change is also
worthy of discussion with regard to the process of and motivations
for change. During the nineteenth century, the tenants saw fit to
accept settlement change, but to reject housing change. Evidence
suggests that tenants most likely accepted the former because, if
they had resisted, they would have risked eviction. Land was the
most important material commodity in the eyes of the tenants as
without it they had no means of supporting themselves or their

38 See, for example, Anderson Smith, op. cit., 38-9.

39 Crofters and Cottars, op. cit., 50.
40 Housing of the Working Classes, op. cit., 94.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
90 CATRIONA MACKIE

family. They therefore saw acceptance

necessity, brought about by external f
eviction from the proprietors.
The process of implementing housi
slightly different. While settlement cha
to benefit the proprietors, housing change
benefit the tenants. It was therefore dif
the proprietors to adopt measures in th
change that would be to the obvious det
settlement change could be enforced w
housing change could be dealt with m
consequence that tenants were gen
authorities' attempts at imposing change
The tenants' rejection of housing c
result of a number of factors. Firstl
enforced, it was not judged as being a
Secondly, while the proprietors believe
materially and socially advantageous, su
perspective of the tenants, often
disadvantageous and went against their
practices, and values. In other words, th
proprietors were not compatible with t
vie. Tenants may also have rejected
would have meant that their routine pra
within the house would have been
environment is not only created by ge
active role in the creation of it, any enfor
environment would result in the restru
This might then lead to a period of diss
minds of the people struggle to catch up
In particular, housing change may hav
house had taken on a more important ro
community after the first lotting, or p

41 This idea has been explored further by C. Dalgli

of Reason: An Archaeology of the Southern Scottis
Nineteenth Centuries A.D.', unpublished PhD thes

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 91

changes were deemed by tenants to be too intrusive and literally too

close to home.
In order to motivate material change, therefore, there has to be a
perceived social, cultural, or environmental necessity or advantage
to implementing it. Although that motivation was present in the
society and culture of the authorities, it was completely absent in
the society and culture of the people. This, I believe, is at the heart
of the struggle between the authorities and the tenants on the issue
of improved housing. Until the society and culture of the people had
altered so that material change became either necessary or
advantageous, the tenants would not willingly instigate change. The
required changes, therefore, could not have been satisfactorily
adopted in Lewis until the society had changed, such that the cattle
were no longer of primary importance, the thatch was no longer
needed for fertilizer, and, perhaps, most importantly of all, the
culture of the people had adapted to this new society. Housing
change was slow to be accepted by the tenants because it was seen
as a direct attack on both their culture, and their agricultural
practices.

Housing Change and Continuity during the Twentieth Century

In the early twentieth century, however, things began to change. A
pro-active approach to improvement through education - rather than
through legislation - was adopted, and public lectures were given
on the dangers of using water from contaminated wells, and local
nurses advised women on childcare in the home.42
Tenants' attitudes were also beginning to change. Since the mid
nineteenth century, men in Lewis had been following the seasonal
herring fishing to supplement their livelihood at home. During this
time, there is evidence that a greater number of imported materials -
such as foodstuffs and clothing - became commonplace.43 From the

42 See, for example, Evidence Given Before the Royal Commission on the Housing of
the Industrial Population of Scotland Rural and Urban, Vol. 1, Edinburgh 1921;
Highlands and Islands Medical Service Committee Report to the Lords
Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasure, London 1912; Scottish Mothers and
Children, Dunfermline 1917.
43 See, for example, Crofters and Cottars, op. cit..

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
92 CATRIONA MACKIE

1870s and 1880s onwards, young, unma

men-folk at the fishing, travelling every y
packers to such ports as Wick, on the east
English ports such as Great Yarmouth and
went to work in cities, such as Glasgow, as
families also had relatives who had emigra
to-late nineteenth century, and who freque
families back home in Lewis.44
These social changes had two effects. Fir
disposable income of the average family. S
women to see a different way of life than
to in Lewis - different food, clothes, shop
returned home, they wanted to emulate the w
on the mainland, and they now had the m
had returned to Lewis after emigrating
houses.45
Change was slow, however, and by no me
island. The introduction of housing change
suddenly, nor did it happen in every town
house, at the same time. It was very much
circumstances. By 1900, although some hou
partitions between the byre, the living are
the majority of houses did not.
The diversity of house types to be f
beginning of the twentieth century is we
report, published in 1905, on the Sanitary
The sanitary inspectors visited a numb
parishes of Stornoway and Lochs on the ea
in the parish of Barvas on the west side, i
Bragar, and the neighbouring township
Back, in the parish of Stornoway, the in
'degrees of badness' in the condition of the
partitions between the byre, living, and s
one or two small windows in the walls. Som

44For example, Industrial Population, Evidence, op. c

45 Ibid., e.g. 462.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 93

had been constructed with stone and lime, while others were
completely constructed of turf. The inside walls were covered with
a thin layer of clay, which was then whitewashed, and furniture
consisted of 'a few chairs and a wooden bench or two, with, in some
cases, a dresser'.46 In Arnol (and similarly in Bragar), they found
that 'the whole township and every house in it is uninhabitable and
should be condemned, except the three or four stone and lime built
ones'.47 There was no clay on the inside walls, no partition between
the byre and the living area, and no windows. Some had only a
plank of wood, resting on two large stones, to sit on. Interestingly,
most of the houses did have a timber partition between the living
area and the sleeping area, and a comparison can be drawn between
this practice, and a similar one in traditional Welsh long-houses. In
many of these, the byre-end was at a lower level than the rest of the
house, which generally resulted in a step up from the byre to the
kitchen, as was the case in most Lewis houses of the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. In some Welsh houses, however, this
change in floor level occurred not between the byre and the kitchen,
but between the kitchen and the sleeping area, which was at the end
of the house.48 This division of space is very unusual by modern
standards and is certainly worthy of further investigation.
The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the
introduction, in many houses, of windows and timber partitions and,
after the First World War, wallpaper and ornaments, brought back
from fishing trips to the mainland, became commonplace.
Probably the most important, and indeed the most interesting
change of the early twentieth century, however, was the movement
of the central hearth to a stone partition wall, which separated the
byre from the living area. Passage between the two areas was made
possible by a doorway in the partition wall. By this time, many
houses had re-built the end wall of the sleeping area to incorporate a
gable with a built-in chimney. When the central hearth moved,
however, it was not to an enclosed stone chimney, but to an open

46 Sanitary Condition of the Lews, op. cit., 4.

47Ibid., 7-8.
481. Peate, The Welsh House, Liverpool 1944, 57.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
94 CATRIONA MACKIE

Plate 12: Stone 'hobble' in a house in Borghastan in

flue, known in Lewis as a 'hobble' (Plate 12). T

stems from a type of narrow skirt, known as a '
was popular with the ladies around 19 10.
At first, the hobble did not reach as far as t
either wall height, or extended part way into the
terminated. There was nothing but a hole in the
flue to let out some of the smoke, allowing th
out through the thatch while it was still nee
some areas a hanging wooden canopy was c
hobble, very much like the hin gin' lum - or
which was prevalent on the Scottish mainland,
extend through the thatch taking the smoke
seem likely that this was only used in places
the thatch was no longer needed as fertilizer
which was a scarce commodity in Lewis, was
other areas, a sheet of zinc was attached acro

49 See, for example, A. Fenton, The Hearth in Scotland, Ed

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 95

Plate 13: A blocked up hole (highlighted) in the back of an enclosed hobble, Dalbeg,
Lewis. Photograph taken from the byre-end of the house. Note also the small shelf to
the left of the picture. This may have been created as a space to place a small lamp.

hobble to create an enclosed flue. Often a shelf was built into the
hobble, which would house the family Bible, and perhaps a clock.
Eventually, in many cases, the hobble's open flue was built up and
enclosed and a mantelpiece constructed on which would be
displayed various ornaments brought back from the fishing, together
with cards and gifts sent by family members from abroad. However,
the enclosure of the hobble was not quite the end of the story. In
some houses, the top of the enclosed flue was blocked up, and a
small window opened in the back of the hobble, to allow the smoke
to escape into the byre area (Plate 13). This may have been to give
the cattle and the hens in the byre more heat, but it would also have
allowed the thatch at the byre end of the house to become saturated
with soot, so that it could be used as fertilizer.
As the tenants' genre de vie changed, housing changes that had
previously not been materially or socially advantageous now
became perceived as such. In fact some changes, such as the

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
96 CATRIONA MACKIE

introduction of sewerage, began to be r

Throughout the twentieth century, improv
communications, emigration, the islanders
World Wars, their increasing enculturation
(particularly with the success of the Harri
decline in crop cultivation and in cattle re
widen the islanders' social and cultural h
genre de vie and thus their attitude towards h
Women, in particular, played an im
introduction, implementation, and spr
changes. The introduction of wallpaper for
movement, and subsequent adornment,
example, were primarily a result of the wo
certain aspects of a genre de vie which
elsewhere. When the women returned h
seasonal fishing trips to the mainland or
changes were introduced as the women sou
of houses they had known on the mainland
Changes then spread throughout the
internal diffusion, particularly within tow
to improve their houses as their neighbour
had altered his house in some way, very of
township followed suit. In South Harris one

[w]henever a crofter started improving his ho

to do the same. In the townships and distric
tried to improve his house, all the houses a
experience that if one crofter builds a goo
strive to do the same, and they would rather
have a decent house than not be equal to thei

This was also found to be the case in Lewis

However, while changes were adop
emulation, this was not to the exclusion o
materials they had, tenants adapted the de

50 Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing

Scotland Rural and Urban, Edinburgh 1917, 211.
51 For example, Industrial Population, Evidence, op. cit

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 97

their existing genre de vie. The movement of the hearth, for

example, together with the creation of a chimney in the living area,
was initially adapted to suit the islanders' need of the soot-filled
thatch and their beliefs about the heat-giving properties of smoke.
In the 1940s and '50s, running water and electricity were
introduced to the island and many of the old houses were connected
to these services. New roofing materials came in, and it became
common for roofs to have a layer of felt underneath the thatch.
Concrete and corrugated iron also became widely used in houses
old and new (Plate 14).
The plans of the Bragar houses, indicate that some slight
changes took place in the layout of the houses since the mid
nineteenth century (Plates 15, 16, and 17). The byre-dwelling unit
increased in size between the first and second lotting, as did the
fosglan, where there is one. This may have been the result of the
increase in population which had occurred in the late eighteenth and

Plate 14: Concrete hobble with shelf (left) built in the same style as the stone
hobbles, Brue, Lewis. A metal plate would have been fixed across the front of the
flue, and a mantelpiece added.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
98 CATRIONA MACKIE

early nineteenth century. The population of L

191 1, when it reached in excess of tw
thousand.52 The 'upper room' seems to have
than the number of rooms in the house h
building extensions, the existing rooms
divided, which mirrors the development o
from the seventeenth century onwards
external fosglan was done away with as a
between the byre and the living area, flan
partitions, creating a space where peat and
In the 1920s, the Board of Agriculture in
construction of new houses, otherwise kn
Several were built in Lewis, as elsewhere, a
after the Second World War, when the
Agriculture began offering grants as we
tenants to build new houses. Initially, ther
make full use of these new houses. In the e
new house was often built onto the end of
still used to house the cattle (Plate 18).
In many instances, the old house was the
cooking and eating, whereas the new house
of place to take the minister'.54 In one case

Plate 15: Houses built during the first lotting - late ei

nineteenth century

52 F. F. Darling, West Highland Survey, An Essay in

81.
53 W. Rybczynski, Home: A Short History of an Idea, Middlesex 1987.
54 Industrial Population, Evidence, op. cit., 459.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 99

Plate 16: Houses built during the second lotting - c. 1849

Plate 17: Houses built after the second lotting - c. 1850-1895

against an old house with no interconnection between them. The

family lived in the new house for some time, until eventually:
the old lady thought the trouble of going out the white house door
and in by the byre door before they could get into the black house
was too much, and she got the two houses knocked together, and
from that day the byre door has been the door they go out and in at.
And the black house has become the real living room. [...] That is
what happens when a white house is built as an annexe to a black
house. What I maintain is that while they are in that position the
black house is the main house. The improvement is more apparent
than real.55

55 Ibid., 459-60.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
100 CATRIONA MACKIE

Plate 18: Concrete 'white-house' (background) built onto the

(foreground), South Bragar.

By 1960, however, most, but not all, of the o

abandoned as homes, although many continued t
stores. Perhaps the most notable of the old ho
occupied in the 1960s, at least on the west co
those in the township of Garenin, and the hou
1974, the five remaining elderly residents o
Garenin were removed into newly-built coun
time, however, the thatched houses in Garenin
substantially. The cattle had been taken out of
floors had been laid and covered with carpet or
a chimney in the gable wall, and papered walls
would have contained many of the modern conv
the new houses of that time. A number of the o
were later taken over by the Garenin Trust and
built to conform to current building regulatio
museums, hostels, and self-catering accommod
'Gearrannan Blackhouse Village'.
In 1964, the house at 42 Arnol was still occupi
been much less modernised than the houses

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 TRADITIONAL HOUSING IN THE ISLE OF LEWIS 101

lower end of the house was still used as a byre, although there was a
passageway flanked by timber partitions between the byre and the
living area. The latter area contained a central hearth with no
chimney or smoke-hole. There was one small window in the
sleeping area, which was separated from the living part by a timber
partition. This house was subsequently taken over by the heritage
Agency, Historic Scotland, and turned into a 'Blackhouse Museum'.
These two examples serve to show the extremes of conditions
that were to be found in old Lewis houses as late as the 1960s and
'70s. In 1980 a survey of the west coast of Lewis, from Callanish to
Ness, by Lancaster University, found three improved 'black-houses'
still occupied, all by elderly inhabitants.56 As far as I'm aware, no
such houses are now occupied in Lewis.

Conclusion
In summary, the motivations of the various authorities with regard
to housing improvements changed during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, as did the process through which they
attempted to implement change. Until the end of the nineteenth
century, the authorities responsible for housing improvement in
Lewis, and throughout Scotland, were the landowners. They sought
to introduce housing and settlement change in the nineteenth
century on the basis of social and cultural reform, resulting from the
belief that the tenants' genre de vie was inferior and that the tenants
would therefore benefit from civilising. These motivations for
housing change gave way, in 1889, to those of the local authorities
which included improved health and sanitary conditions.
The method chosen to implement change, both by the
landowners and by the local authorities of the late nineteenth
century, was that of legislation, whereby tenants were instructed
how to build their houses by following Articles and Conditions of
Set (e.g. 1795), Rules and Regulations (e.g. 1879), and bye-laws.
None of this legislation was effectively enforced, however, and in
the early twentieth century, educating, rather than civilising became

561. Whyte, 'The Lewis Black House in 1980: The End of an Old Tradition', Northern
Studies 16 (19m), 46-52.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
102 CATRIONA MACKIE

the order of the day, with tenants no lo

instead being educated, into a better
authorities also relied heavily on underlying
vie of the island community to itself en
improved housing among the people, parti
increased disposable income, and their broa
When their society and culture began to
housing change possible.

This content downloaded from

46.106.242.59 on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 06:44:25 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms