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Though the blackhouse made the best use of the available resources, it was far from conducive to good health.  The cold and damp Hebridean climate, combined with the unsanitary conditions of the blackhouse, offered fertile ground for killer diseases like whooping cough, scarlet fever, tuberculosis typhoid and the innocently sounding, but usually fatal, ‘tinneas nan còig oidhche’ (the five night sickness) that often affected children.  

ABOVE RIGHT: Photo taken in Lionel looking towards the village of Port showing a mix of 'taighean dubh' (blackhouses) and more modern 'taighean geal' (whitehouses).
 

In the Parish of Barvas (Ness-Barvas), the 1791-99 Statistical Account confirms that disease and illness was characteristic of the cold, damp, conditions that the inhabitants lived in.  In his census report, the parish minister, Rev. Donald MacDonald, recorded that:

“Rheumatism, the general complaint of all moist climates, is very common; it is rather a matter of surprise that is not more frequent, considering their damp and dirty houses.  How much the inhabitants are exposed to rain and cold, and their clothing poor.  Fevers and fluxes are not uncommon; and many infants die of a complaint called ‘the five night sickness,’ from their dying of it upon the fifth or sixth night.  There are no instances of any who have been seized with it that escaped, nor has the nature of this uncommon disease been as yet fully comprehended by the most skilful upon this island.”

Nearly fifty years later, in the Statistical Account of 1845, the incumbent minister in Barvas, Rev. William Macrae, reported that the same illnesses - colds, asthma and rheumatism – were ravaging the population, as well as the fatal ‘five night sickness’ that was attacking children, for which they had no remedy or treatment to fight against it.  By any stretch of the imagination, the cold, wet and wind-swept conditions of a Hebridean bog in the depths of winter must have played a tremendous toll on the health of its repressed inhabitants.

  Though legislation, like the 1867 Public Health (Scot.) Act, the 1875 Act and initiatives like the formation of the Lewis District Board in the 1890s, had been put in place to improve conditions for the poor, desperate housing conditions remained for much of the population of the Hebrides during the early 20th century. 
Murdo MacDonald 20 North Dell and his grandfather.
Murchadh Mhurdaig  's a sheanair Fionlagh Shurdaidh, Tabost		    

A Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Lews sent to the Local Government Board for Scotland in 1905 makes grim reading.

“Three cows occupied about two-thirds of the available space, and the darkness was so profound that one rubbed against them before seeing them.  There was only a hole in the roof above the fire and one above the door through which light and air could enter, and unless the door had been open one could not have seen anything.  Even with the aid of wax vestas, it was impossible to make out clearly the outlines of any single object.  In a space about half as large as that occupied by the cows and about 18 inches above it (owing to the surplus manure being piled outside the door) there was the living and sleeping-room.  There was only a wooden plank on the earth floor, resting on stones (at least that is all one could make out in the darkness), and no vestige of a bed, or bedding.”

“In this awful den, not fit for a pig, there are housed two wretched old paupers, who are compelled to crouch over the peat fire all night as there is no bed to retire to.  One of the cows has a most suspicious hacking cough.”

Visiting the village of Bragar on the West Side of Lewis, the report authors write:

“The whole township and every house in it is uninhabitable and should be condemned, except the three or four stone and lime built ones,” referring to the few ‘whitehouses’ that decorated the village of about 120 dwellings, predominantly blackhouses.

Even obtaining fresh drinking water was a problem for the villagers:  “The water supply for the whole township of Arnol is a single shallow dip well, exposed to obvious contamination by surface drainage, and almost inaccessible through the mud and bog.”

The Report authors visited the home of an elderly brother and sister in Bragar whom they described as ‘paupers’, stating that it, “presented the worst features we have yet met among the houses of this shockingly insanitary type.”

Of the couple’s desperate blackhouse dwelling, they recorded:

“A heap of manure about 6 feet high was piled up to within 2 feet of the narrow and low entrance.  Immediately on opening the swing door one was met by the ammoniacal odour from the byre and was conscious of walking on and sinking into manure.  The darkness prevented one seeing anything at first.”
 

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