Black houses in Scotland 

‘The family patriarch had been a bondsman to the Duke of Hamilton. At the age of 15, in 1675, he had left the family home to live in a fermtoun. It was a group of dwellings for farm labourers, little better than the black houses of the Highlands.’ This quote is from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024).

While not a 'black house' Robert Burns cottage in Ayr gives a fair impression of what housing and road conditions were likely to have been in Cambuslang (in Lanarkshire).

More about black houses

Black houses were traditionally built with local materials such as stone and turf. The walls were often made of unmortared stone, with a thatched roof made of heather, straw, or turf. They had thick, low walls and a simple rectangular shape. The thatched roof was often weighted down with stones to protect it from strong winds.

With a simple partition, indoor space was shared between humans and animals. They did not have chimneys and soot from open peat fires, which blackened the interiors over time. 

Farm workers' houses in the Lowlands could be built with wattle and daub, stone or brick. Some had slate roofs. Many dwellings had a separate byre or barn for animals, reflecting the more specialised agricultural practices of the Lowlands. Fireplaces and chimneys were more common. The construction was superior to that of the Highlands because the region was more prosperous.