My Croft House
Please come and visit my cosy but basic croft house. You will see it is a very simple structure. The
strong, weather-proof stone walls are built from the stones and boulders from around the township.
They are very thick, about one metre, perfect for keeping out the cold winter drafts and the driving
rain. The small windows on either side of the low, sturdy door let in only a slither of sunlight in the
summer but in the winter we block them up with peat to stop the icy breeze and the harsh snow.
The stout roof has two layers, first a layer of turf, carefully cut into tile shapes lying on the oak and
pine roof timbers and then a layer of bracken and heather, it is all held down with big stones
attached to ropes. You may have noticed that the house is long and low. This is because the tallest
man in the township could reach no higher than the top of the walls. So all of the houses are roughly
the same height. The small room at the end of the house is the byre. That is what makes it long. It is
where we keep the cattle in the winter so we don’t have to go out in the cold to collect the milk.
Also the cows give off a lot of heat which, alongside the fire helps keep us warm in the cruel winter
months. Behind our small, humble croft house is our kitchen garden where we grow some
vegetables.
If you come into my small home, you will see it is very basic. Over there is my mother and
my younger sister making crowdie, a type of soft cheese. You will not see my father or my older
brothers as they are out working with the cattle. The walls have been plastered with mud to keep in
the heat from the fire. The floor is made with compacted soil and mud, it is quite damp but the heat
from the welcoming fire soon dries it up.
If you look up you will notice that we have no ceiling so you can see the sacred cruke frame.
The cruke frames have been in our family for generations and they are very important to my family,
like a family airloom, they also stop the roof from falling in.
You can probably see, and smell, the dense peat smoke. It stings your eyes really badly but
you become used to it. Come over here and I’ll show you the cruisie lamp. It probably looks like a
soup ladle to you, but we fill it with fish oil and peel rushes to use as wicks. If you look over there
you will see our small box bed. My mother and father sleep on the main part of the bed and my
brothers, my sister and I share the roof of the bed kept warm by the blankets that my grandmother
wove before she passed away last winter.
In the middle of our cosy cottage is the fire. We use it for cooking, heat and light. Above the
firs is our sturdy, iron cooking pot. It is held over the fire by a strong iron chain called slabhraidh.
Sometimes we hang a gridle over the iron pot and make pancakes but we only do that on special
occasions. Around the fire are the low stools. They are low for a reason, so that when we eat our
meals around the fire the smoke from the fire rises above us and we don’t have to breath in the
horrible smoke while eating.
Over there, by the box bed, is the dresser. On display is all of the precious china and the
things that we have picked up on our travels.
You have probably realised by now that we have no washing machine. Instead we wash our
clothes, and ourselves, in the burn. We’re not the only ones who wash in the burn, everyone from
the township uses it. It’s like a giant bathtub but only if the weather is decent if it is rainy we take
buckets of water up to the house and wash there.
Thank-you very much for visiting my croft house. I hope you have learnt a lot about crofting
and how much houses have changed over the past 150 years. I hope you have enjoyed your visit.