Some Cottage History

The Cottage 'Taobh na Dachaidh' was built around 1850s.  

Evidence found during the renovation process suggests that the cottage was originally built as a 'Black House.'  These traditional crofting cottages were generally built with double dry-stone walls packed with earth and 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.  Stones were often tied to a netting which was laid over the roof to help avoid wind damage (as seen in the image above).  The blackhouse was used to accommodate livestock as well as people. People lived at one end and the animals lived at the other with a partition between them.

Taobh na Dachaidh (pronounced Tayv or Tiv na Dakkie and translates from Gaelic as Beside the Home - we think 'Home' in this context refers to a building, now lost, that would have been somewhere adjacent to the current property) was originally built on the rock with stone and a lime mortar.  In the sitting room of Taobh na Dachaidh you will see a 'history window,' a framed and glazed hole in the wall surface.  In this can be seen where timbers would have been that supported the original roof.  Stones have been laid above the original wall height (using a coarse concrete instead of the lime mortar), leaving the holes where the timbers once rested.  The ceiling was then raised to its current level and the walls were covered over using tongue and groove panelling.  In the gable walls the original roof line can be seen as a rough diagonal line in the stones, further suggesting the later raising of the roof height.  And to further add to the changing shape of the cottage, the sitting room window was once a door.  The stone wall below the window is just a fill, the original sides to the doorway are still evident (behind the new wall-boarding!).