Black house

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For other uses, see Black House (disambiguation).

Restored black house in a museum on Trotternish, Skye.

The black house (Gaelic : tigh dubh) is a traditional type of house which used to be common in Highland Scotland, the Hebrides, Ireland and areas of Gaelic settlement in Nova Scotia. It was generally built with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth and wooden rafters covered with a turf roof, although reed thatch was occasionally used as the roofing material. 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 though. Instead the smoke made its way through the roof.

The black house 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.

The black house was used as late as the mid 1970's^[1] and as people moved into more modern dwellings with indoor plumbing and better heating, and many ruined or roofless examples may be seen. However, black houses are increasingly being restored, especially for use as holiday accommodation.