Thatched house in Kilmoluaig
Photograph of a thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990.
Tiree’s thatched houses have immensely thick double walls, around five feet thick and six to seven feet high, filled with sand and rubble known as ‘glutadh’. They were built without mortar and with hip ends as opposed to the more usual gable ends seen on the mainland.
The older houses, pre-1850, were built using un-dressed stones found in the fields and at the shore. Their walls are rougher and the corners rounded. The roof rests on the inner wall, the stones of which are tilted downwards so that rainwater drains away from the rooms inside.
The ground at the back of the house is usually higher than at the front. If built on a slope, they would be slightly dug in at the back to give them greater shelter.
Colour photograph of the Alasdair MacDonald`s thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990.
Alasdair MacDonald`s thatched house in Kilmoluaig in 1990. (Original in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 2)