Blackhouse

Okay kiddo, so a blackhouse is a special kind of house that used to be built a long time ago in a place called the Outer Hebrides, which is an island chain off the coast of Scotland.

Now, imagine a house with a roof made of straw and walls made of rocks or turf. This house usually had only one room where the people would live, cook, sleep, and do almost everything. Sounds cozy, doesn't it?

But what makes it a blackhouse then? Well, the fire! There was a special part of the house called a hearth where the fire would be built. This fire would burn all day and night, and the smoke would rise up and out through a hole in the roof.

Since the roof was made of straw, it would get covered in soot from all the smoke, making it look black. So, that's why it's called a blackhouse, clever right?

Blackhouses were very important in the past because they provided a warm and safe place for people to live in the cold and windy climate of the Outer Hebrides. Some of them still exist today and are even used as museums to teach people about what life was like in the olden days.