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Commenting on the conditions endured by 19th century blackhouse occupants in the Parish of Barvas (Ness-Barvas), local minister Rev William Macrae records in the 1845 Statistical Account: 

“The inhabitants are about the middle size, of a sallow complexion, probably occasioned by the peat smoke in which they are constantly enveloped."

Of the people, he stated:  “The men are all well-proportioned, hardy, robust, and healthy, and the women are modest, comely and many of them good-looking.  The Gaelic is the only language, and has been from time immemorial; and it is spoken, in the opinion of competent judges, with grammatical correctness and classical purity.”

But this is set against a background of impoverished and unhygienic living conditions: 

 

ABOVE RIGHT:  A bare-footed Bella Morrison, High Borve, tying oats.  Bellag Mhoireasdan, Baile Ard Bhuirigh, a’ ceangal choirce. Circa 1920.


“In their habits, much cleanliness can scarcely be expected, considering their poverty and the wretchedness of their habitations, especially while the present system, which has prevailed for ages, continues, of having the cattle under the same roof with themselves, entering at the same door, and allowing their manure to accumulate without being removed except once a year.”

Contrasting the general contentment found within the family ‘homes’ of the rural poor with the depressed physical condition of the ‘houses’ the people inhabited, Mr MacRae described a people making the best of a difficult situation:

“Their mode of living most closely approaches the pastoral – without arts, trade, or manufacture, navigation or literature, their whole round of duty consists in securing fuel, in sowing and reaping their scanty crops and in rearing their flocks, and tending them at pasture.  Yet in these limited circumstances, while supplied with food and clothing of the plainest description, and able to pay their rents, their simple cottages are abodes of happiness and contentment.”

Alasdair MacGilleathain (Alex MacLean – ‘Siulpan’), 4 Baile an Truiseil, leis an each le lod feòir. 1961.
                     Click images to enlarge
Angus Gunn (Inch) ‘a Cros a’ cliathadh leis an each. Eaglais Shaoir Chrois air a chùlaibh.

As protection against the oppressive extremes of weather, 18th and 19th century Scots and Irish dress was typically a heavy, coarse, woollen fabric. Mr MacRae noted that:  “Blue kelt is almost the only dress worn by the men, and stuffs variously striped by the women, with under dresses of plaiding, all home made.”

William Macrae also records the early introduction of lighter cotton materials and the more familiar printed dress that has become more commonly associated with Hebridean womenfolk during much of the twentieth century:

“In many instances, however, cotton shirts and print gowns are beginning to supersede the use of some of these articles.  The formation of the female habit, with their whole appearance, closely resembles that of the ‘Wandering Bavarians’ or Swiss ‘buy a broom’ singers, who itinerate through this country.”

As with dress, sources of nourishment were basic and far from ideal:

“Their ordinary food consists of oat and barley meal, potatoes and milk, variously prepared.  Their domestic economy is frugal and moderate beyond conception.  The produce of a foreign soil, as tea, coffee, and sugar, and the common conveniences of art, as knives, forks, &c. are to them altogether alien.”

For most of us the blackhouse is now reduced to the discarded ruins of once cherished homes that demanded enormous energy and resolve from the hard-working inhabitants who eked out an impoverished living from what they could obtain from the land or sea.