Monument record 816 - ST KILDA VILLAGE

NF19NW 21.10 1005 9934.

This group of drystone buildings lies end-on to the street, occupying a site between Houses 10 and 11 in the area to the W of the main consumption dyke. Black houses M and N are contiguous, sharing a common side-wall. It is clear from Sharbau's plan that in 1858 these houses were used by Donald MacQueen and John Gillies. House 10 nearby, which replaced another black house in this group continued to be occupied by the MacQueens, and House 11 by the Gillies household.
Black House M measures internally 5.64m by 2.95m within walls up to 1.7m thick. Externally, the walls are battered and the corners rounded. At the N end the external wall-face is low because the building is set in to a slope, but the line of an outer face continues at a lower level, curving into a mound. On the NW corner of this mound is a small cleit-like structure, roofed with timber and turf, now mostly collapsed. In the E side-wall of the main building there is a window and doorway, the doorway-opening retaining the post of a wooden door-frame. Inside, the S angles are rounded and at the squared NE angle the N end-wall is bonded only in its upper courses. A drain, not visible inside, empties on to the street from the centre of the S end-wall. Another drain runs under the flagstones on the E side, and then below the street.
Black House N, virtually a lateral annexe, measures internally 4.98m in length, its width tapering from 2.03m to 1.46m S to N and the walls being up to 1.68m thick. The external SW angle is square. The doorway, which is near the S end of the W side-wall, has a slabbed threshold and three stone lintels, and there is a window a little to the N in the same wall.
Black House O measures internally 6.13m by 3.05m within walls up to 1.42m thick. Gables have been added to the end-walls which rise to a height of 3.05m. Rounded externally, the internal angles are square, and the lower halves of the NE, NW and SE angles are not mutually bonded. The N end-wall thus appears to have been partly rebuilt or refaced. Traces of red ash can be found in the interstices of this wall and at the N end of the W side-wall, while in the S gable-wall there is an area of mortared walling. A drain runs beneath this wall on to the street. The doorway, which is near the S end of the E side-wall, has a slabbed threshold and on the inner face there are two large timbers joined to form a lintel. A little to the N in the same wall the inner lintel of the window embrasure is also of timber with a stone lintel above, the window-frame itself was set about 0.41m from the inner wall-face. Traces of cement and tar on the wall-heads show the lines of the last roof and roof-timbers.
Outside a slabstone path runs between Black Houses N and O and continues up the slope past the NE corner, possibly leading to the rubbish pit in that area.
G P Stell and M Harman 1988.