Description

The monument comprises a group of domestic buildings and ancillary enclosures lying at the north end of Arnol township. The buildings include two blackhouses, one roofed and one unroofed, and two stone-and-mortar-built croft houses.

The two blackhouses were both built around 1880. Blackhouse no. 42, on the east side of the road, was restored after being taken into state care in 1962; the byre roof was rebuilt in 1990. The building consists of a byre-house, laid out north-south, with a central lobby dividing the byre from the living room and bedroom. A barn is attached to its east side and a stack yard, enclosed by a drystone dyke, abuts its north end. To the north of this lies a single-storey croft house of standard Department of Agriculture design, into which the inhabitants of the blackhouse moved around 1962. This building is now uninhabited and has been refurbished internally for use as a visitor centre.

Blackhouse no. 39 lies west of the road, but unlike no. 42 it was already abandoned as a house by the 1960s. It is now roofless. It consists of a central byre-house, lying east-west, flanked on the north and south by shorter annexes. The house-end of the byre-house was evidently uphill towards the east, with the entrance through the byre and a window (blocked) in the east end-wall. The northern annexe would have been a barn and the southern one a porch (or fosglan). A vegetable patch or stack yard, enclosed by a drystone wall, lies north of the building. The croft house associated with this blackhouse was built in the 1920s and lies next to the road. It has two storeys and is covered by a pitched roof covered with felt.

The area to be scheduled is irregular, measuring 72m north-south by 70m east-west, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract. The top 30cm of the public road which runs through the area is excluded from scheduling to allow for its maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Historic Environment Scotland Properties
Arnol Blackhouse No. 39
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/the-blackhouse-arnol
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Arnol Blackhouse No. 42
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/the-blackhouse-arnol
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Source: Historic Environment Scotland