Gearrannan is a coastal crofting village situated in a secluded bay within the district of Carloway on the west coast of Eilean Leòdhais in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
The Isle of Lewis is shaped by the sea and harsh climate. Steeped in history, the Island has been inhabited for over 6,000 years, and is truly an Island of An Cuan Siar, with nothing but the sea between it and North America. The Gearrannan Blackhouse Village is found amongst the unique time-line string of sites of special heritage interest on the West Side of the Isle of Lewis which begins with Tursachan Chalanais of some 5,000 years ago and comes up the millennia to Dùn Charlabhaigh and onto recent crofting history at Gearrannan.
A question often asked is, "what is the original meaning of the term 'tigh dubh'?" The word only dates back to the nineteenth century. Until about 1850 all houses in Lewis, with the exception of some larger buildings, were of similar design. All walls were of double thickness, built of stone and turf with thatched roofs. However, from the 1850s new buildings, influenced by mainland designs, succeeded the blackhouses. Their single thickness walls cemented with lime mortar were in such contrast that they were named tigh geal and the antonym tigh dubh was then applied to the older houses in Lewis.
