Life in the Black House: Arnol, Isle of Lewis

The remote islands on the north-west coast of Scotland have been inhabited for thousands of years. With the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the island of Lewis is battered with fierce storms and crashing waves. Island life can be harsh, and buildings must be built to last.

The stone black houses in the village of Arnol show how the way of life has changed very little for hundreds of years, and how modern buildings have replaced these traditional structures.

This pile of peat is cut directly from the ground. It is made from decomposed vegetable material, which can be dried and burned like coal. Much of the Isle of Lewis is covered in this rich resource.

These stone walls look basic, but they are actually similar in many ways to modern buildings. There are 2 stone walls, with a gap in between stuffed with straw. This straw acts as insulation, helping the building to retain heat.

This roof is made from heathery turf, which is weighed down by rocks and ropes. Few trees grow here because of the boggy landscape and high winds – islanders need to be resourceful with what is available.

The design of the house is similar to houses found in stone-age settlements, suggesting that little had changed in the lifestyle of the islands for many years. When it was inhabited, a whole family would live in this room, making the most of the warmth of the fire.

This black house is less than 150 years old and the last black house was abandoned in 1974.

Unlike other houses, a black house doesn’t have a chimney. A small hole above the fire helps smoke to escape, but most spreads around the room. It could feel suffocating when the doors and windows were closed in winter.

Tucked away in this corner is a raised platform with a bed. Having a bed in the communal area was normal, and also meant that the heat from the fire could keep the sleeping family warm into the night.

This fire burns peat, and was kept burning all through the day and night. It was the way to cook the family meals, as well as being the gathering point during the long evenings.

Many of the people who lived in these houses also kept animals for the household. These might have been sheep, goats, cows or horses. These animals were kept in a separate room, but still under the same roof.

This meant that they could be kept safe from the wind and the weather, and they could also benefit from the warmth of the house. These rooms were also used to store equipment, and a separate room had space to store grain.

The animals kept in this room, also called a byre, would have eaten their meals here in winter. This might have been hay or other cereals, or it might have been seaweed, harvested from the rocks on the nearby shore.

These ropes might have been used to repair fishing nets, a major industry on the island. Before there was easy transportation to and from the island, people had to supply everything they needed themselves.

The floor of this area would have been earth, with a drainage system to clean out the animal waste. In the main living area, the floor is made of stone.

In Gaelic, the language traditionally spoken in northern Scotland and the Western Isles, these shelters were called “taigheans”, meaning “houses”. 

They began to be called “black houses”, or “taigh-dubh”, after housing regulations changed in the early 20th century, disallowing houses and byres to share a roof. These new houses were called “white houses”, or “taigh-geal”, because of their contrasting structure and color in the landscape.

Closer in structure to modern houses, white houses slowly replaced black houses, and offered a different, often better standard of living. However, these walls don’t have the double structure that helped to insulate the black houses from the weather.

This white house was built in 1920, and was occupied until 1976. The roof is made from slate and timber, imported from the mainland – unlike the heather and driftwood used to make the roofs of the black houses.

The main difference between the old and new houses is the windows. In the black houses, there would have been no gaps in the walls or roof to stop the cold wet weather from coming in.

White houses were much more closely related to dwellings in other parts of the country at the time, and offered a more modern, although less traditional way of living. Outside of the house, lives went on in much the same way – crofters tended their land and their animals.

However, inside, life was much changed. With multiple rooms, inhabitants could separate their living spaces. Some white houses even had upstairs bedrooms, as well as a kitchen and living area, like in this one.

White houses were equipped with chimneys for their fireplaces. The living spaces were no longer filled with smoke and, instead of 1 fire, there now might be several.

The kitchen is the heart of the home, but residents of black houses remember the closeness of the dark and smoky rooms. A schoolgirl, writing in 1964, remembers nightly winter visits from neighbours, sitting round the fire, singing and talking.

This bed is similar to the one in the black house. Some aspects of life remained the same, even after black houses fell out of use – it was important to be close to the warmth and use space effectively.

In the village of Arnol, visitors can visit the black house and white house at the same time, as they are part of a Historic Scotland museum. Arnol used to have many black houses, but many now lie in ruins next to the white houses that replaced them.

By preserving the remaining black houses, Historic Scotland can show the link between the old way of life on these isolated islands, and the growth of outside influences.

Black houses were built using many organic materials. While this is an excellent use of local resources, it means that the houses fade back into the landscape more quickly than modern structures.

Thousands of tourists visit this site every year to experience historic island life. There has been a settlement in this area for 2,000 years, even though the current white house buildings only date back a century or so.

Close to the sea, the ground is covered by a rich soil, supplied with nutrients from seaweed. Wild flowers bloom here in the summer. This meadow is an example of “machair” – a Gaelic word meaning fertile low-lying grassy plain.