ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the imagined Scottish blackhouse from an archaeological perspective drawing and reflecting on past research. Blackhouses are dwellings most associated with the agricultural system of crofting that was practised from the nineteenth century throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Romantic notions certainly influenced the study of blackhouses in the early part of the twentieth century, when many archaeologists saw blackhouses as living examples of 'primitive' architecture still in use in their contemporary world. Communities on the Isle of Lewis were actively encouraged to build 'white-houses', so named due to their white lime-washed walls, through grants provided by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Blackhouses themselves were also changing as many were being modified and adapted. In 2005 the Ness Archaeological Landscape Survey (NALS) continued the practice of archaeological 'dwelling' in the Hebridean landscape. As part of this survey the author recorded and surveyed some of the blackhouses in Ness.
