2-333-058 - Peter Thompson/Heritage Images

Black house, Colbost Folk Museum, Skye, Highland, Scotland. A black house is a traditional Hebridean dwelling, consisting of a double dry stone wall packed with earth for insulation and a roof of turf or reed thatch on top of wooden rafters. There was no chimney and smoke from the hearth would have to seep out through the roof. The dwellings were usually partitioned with the human occupants living in one end and their livestock in the other. Similar houses were used elsewhere in the Scottish Highlands and in Ireland.