Highland Village - comforts & clearances:
People in Highland and Island Scotland lived in thatched houses called Black Houses throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries. By the mid 19th century many people were leaving the area, due either to 'forced' clearances by landlords or to emigration to the USA and Canada. Historian and folklorist Margaret Bennett takes us inside a black house. She shows us where the cattle were kept, where and how the people would have cooked their food and why many had to leave the black houses.
People in Highland and Island Scotland lived in thatched houses called Black Houses throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries. By the mid 19th century many people were leaving the area, due either to 'forced' clearances by landlords or to emigration to the USA and Canada. Historian and folklorist Margaret Bennett takes us inside a black house. She shows us where the cattle were kept, where and how the people would have cooked their food and why many had to leave the black houses.
