Gearranan Blackhouse Village

Overview

2024 Update - The exact opening dates and prices for 2024 are still to be announced at the time of writing (Feb 2024)

Black houses, or at least their ruins, are to be found all over Scotland and the ones on Lewis are by no means unique. What makes the village at Na Gearranan interesting is the fact that it remained inhabited until 1974 and was one of the last communities of inhabited black houses. We prefer this black house museum to the one at Arnol as the setting is more scenic and the museum does a better job of creating the sense of a still active community. This is in part helped by the fact that some of the cottages have been re-developed as holiday lets and one is in use as a hostel.

The first black house that you come to serves as the visitor shop & cafe. It's a cute wee cafe and the gift shop offers a standard selection of tourist gifts, but they do seem to be of good quality.

The second black house has been restored to appear as it would have done during the 1950's. The house consists of a cattle byre (not open during our visit), a main living/dining room with bed, a second room with 2 box beds and a workshop. A real peat fire burns in the hearth to create the smells and atmosphere of a "Lived in" Highland home.

The whole village is staged with agricultural tools and peat stacks so that it looks as if the inhabitants might just be working around a corner..

The third black house that visitors can access is used for the presentation of a video about the village and the surrounding area.

The maintenance of the houses is an ongoing process so you may see some of the cottages getting a re-thatch.

If you really want to immerse yourself in the Blackhouse experience, you can actually stay in one of the old blackhouses which have been converted intop self catering holiday lets. For more details and online booking, visit the Gearrannan website.