Blackhouses

Restored blackhouses at
An Gearrannan. The low houses huddle together to give each other shelter. Traditional Hebridean blackhouses, they had thick double walls for insulation and thick roofs thatched with rushes. Driftwood and boulders were used to weigh the thatch down. The byre was at one end, generally lower than the family's living area.There was a central fire in the main living room, peat smoke from this caused the houses to be dark - hence Black houses.

The people who lived here were crofters who also worked as fishermen and handloom weavers producing Harris tweed.

The village was inhabited until 1974 by which time the houses had electricity (arrived in1952)and a mains water supply.

The Gearrannan Trust has restored the houses to how they would have been in the 1950s and 60s.