Garenin ( gd, Na Gearrannan) is a
crofting
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man.
Within the 19th century townships, individual crofts were established on the bett ...
township on the west coast of the
Isle of Lewis in the
Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Garenin is in the
Carloway
Carloway ( gd, Càrlabhagh, IPA: kʰaːɾɫ̪ə.ɤː is a crofting township and a district on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The district has a population of around 500. Carloway township is within the par ...
municipality and has a population of about 80 people. It is also within the parish of
Uig.
Today, the village is most famous for the "
blackhouse village", which consists of nine restored traditional thatched cottages. The village is found at the end of the Garenin road beside the village bay. These houses were lived in until 1974 and were the last group of blackhouses to be inhabited in the Western Isles.
[Blackhouse Village (Gearrannan Blackhouse Village)]
– '' The Gazetteer for Scotland'', Francis Hindes Groome Piped water was not available in the village until the 1960s.
[
In 1989, Urras nan Geàrrannan (The Garenin Trust) was established by the Western Isles Council to restore the houses. Over a decade later, on 5 June 2001, the project was complete and the restored village was opened by ]Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...
.[
The village is managed by Gearrannan Village Ltd. There was a ]youth hostel
A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ...
(opened by Magnus Magnusson on 3 July 1991;[ managed by The Gatliff Trust), but this closed in May 2011. There are four self-catering cottages, a museum (a blackhouse set in 1955, three years after electricity arrived on the island)][ and a resource centre; a café and a small gift shop are open in summer.
]
Gallery
File:The Gearrannan Blackhouses 6.JPG
File:The Gearrannan Blackhouses 7.JPG
File:The Gearrannan Blackhouses 12.JPG
References
External links
Gearrannan Blackhouse Village
{{Na h-Eileanan Siar places
Villages in the Isle of Lewis