Kenovay thatched house
Photograph of a thatched house in Kenovay in 1990.
The beautiful thatched houses of Tiree (known as ‘taighean-tugha’) are one of the island’s most distinctive features. They are simple buildings with no unnecessary, fussy details. Before 1900 almost all the buildings on the island, at least three to four hundred of them, were thatched.
After 1900, however, many traditional houses changed their roofing from thatch to tarred felt and larger, two-storey stone built or poured concrete houses funded by the Board of Agriculture became popular after the World War I.
Numbers of the traditional thatched houses have steadily declined over the last hundred years. An Argyll and Bute Council survey in 1985 found twenty-three thatched buildings on the island and today there are only ten.
Colour photograph of the thatched house in Kenovay in 1990.
Thatched house in Kenovay in 1990. (Original in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 2)
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)
Black and white photograph of Taigh na Buaile, Brock.
Taigh na Buaile, Brock.
Black and white photograph of crofters carting marram grass for thatching.
Two crofters carting marram grass for thatching behind Ben Hough in the 1930s or 1940s.
Newsletter of the Friends of the Thatched Houses `Cuairt- Litir`, No 2, December, 1988.
Newsletter of the Friends of the Thatched Houses with articles in English and Gaelic and a photograph of Taigh Eilidh Sheumais Bhain in Balephuil.
Black and white photograph of Taigh Eilidh Cheannadaich, an t-Sraid Ruadh, Balevullin.
Helen Kennedy`s house (Taigh Eilidh Cheannadaich) in an t-Sraid Ruadh, Balevullin, photographed by Donald B. MacCulloch, Glasgow.
Black and white photograph of Willie MacNeill of the Land, Barrapol.
Willie MacNeill (Uilleam an tailleir) from the Land, Barrapol thatching Kate MacDonald`s house in Bail` Ur, Balephuil. The white-washed concrete roof of Taigh MacKay can be seen on the left. Photographed by Morton Boyd in the 1940s or 1950s.
Black and white photograph of Willie MacNeill of the Land, Barrapol.
Willie MacNeill (Uilleam an tailleir) from the Land, Barrapol thatching Kate MacDonald`s house in Bail` Ur, Balephuil. The white-washed concrete roof of Taigh MacKay can be seen on the left. Photographed by Morton Boyd in the 1940s or 1950s.
Colour photograph of Eilidh Sheumais Bhain in Bail` Ur.
Eilidh MacDonald (Eilidh Sheumais Bhain) outside her house in Bail` Ur, Balephuil, photographed by Morton Boyd in the 1940s or 1950s.
Colour photograph of Taigh MhicArtair in Milton.
Taigh MhicArtair in Milton photographed by Morton Boyd in the 1940s or 1950s.
