Scottish Archaeological Journal

The blackhouse is a well-known, but little-studied, element of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscape of the Western Isles. Survey and excavation on Barra suggest that, there at least, most were not long buildings with accommodation shared by animals and humans, but shorter and less spacious than blackhouses further north. Animals were more often housed in separate byres, and human use of space varied from the pattern described by written sources. Routes of enquiry for the origins of the blackhouse are suggested.

a discussion of palisaded enclosures

Review of the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, opened in 1998.