Vernacular Building is the Annual Journal of SVBWG.

Vernacular Building issues 1-29 are free to download from the SVBWG website. To order other publications still in print, download our Publications Price List, and follow the instructions given there; these titles are not available electronically at present.

If you wish to contribute an article to the journal, please download our Guidelines for Authors.

Download the complete index to 'Vernacular Building' nos 1-45: subject index (724KB) | author index (283KB) | reviews index (373KB)

Download (19MB)

Download (27MB)

Download (21MB)

• Jim Souness, Heather Thatching in Scotland - further observations
• Paul and Alison Newman, Simmens and Strae: Thatched Roofs in Orkney
• Sam Seabrook and Brian Wilson, Rebuilding Jeannie MacAlpine's Inn
• Harry Gordon Slade, Artamford and Greenware: Designs for two Improved Farm Courts. 1760 and 1822
• Graham J Douglas, Closet, Gill Pier, Westray, Orkney
• Elizabeth Beaton, The Glasite Meeting House, 33 Barony Street, Edinburgh

• Harry Gordon Slade, Ormiclett (Ormiclate) Castle, South Uist
• Graham J Douglas, Some notes and comments from the Group’s visit to the Uists
• John R Hume, Wallhead Chimneys, Nepus and Timpany Gables – A neglected aspect of
  Scottish Urban Vernacular Building
• Lesley Ketteringham, Cruck-framed Building, Rheanbreck, Lairg, Sutherland
• Timothy Meek, Belle Vue, The West Wing, Church Street, Cromarty, Ross-shire. Interim
• Report on the Application of Lime Harl
  Timothy Meek, Extant Couple Blades, Cromarty, Ross-shire
• Paul & Alison Newman, Roof Types in the Traditional Rural Buildings of Orkney
• Robin D A Evetts, Two Unusual Buildings in Dundee District
• Rachel Tilling, Swanston Steading
• Andrew F Hill, The Reconstruction of Hareshowe Working Farm: Rationale and
  Realisation

• Norma Campbell, Drystane Dyking in Scotland
• Alison & Paul Newman, The House Book of Holm – An Orkney Missing Link?
• Alison & Paul Newman, Quandal: the Buildings in a Pre-Improvement
  Agricultural Community on Rousay, Orkney
• Roger Leitch, Salmon Lodges on the Tay and Earn
• Roger Leitch, A Note on Stone Shieling Huts
• Malcolm Bangor-Jones, The Eighteenth Century Manse of Urray, Ross and
  Cromarty
• Harry Gordon Slade, Castleton, King Edward, Aberdeenshire: An Inventory and a
  Commentary

Vernacular Building 18 (1994)

Download (24MB)

Vernacular Building 19 (1995)

Download (25MB)

Vernacular Building 20 (1996)

Download (35MB)

• John G Harrison, Wooden huts and shelters in 17th century Stirling, with an early example of a hingin' lum
• Jocelyn Rendall, The farm of Gowrie, Papa Westray, Orkney
• Munro Dunn, Housing in cotton factory and iron-works villages of the late 18th and the 19th centuries
• David Alston, A weaver's mud-built house of the early 19th century at Navity, Black Isle
  Graham Douglas, Ribigill steading, Tongue, Sutherland
• Graham Douglas, Kilrie farm, Kinghorn, Fife
  Harry Gordon Slade, Three early croft houses in Gairloch, Wester Ross
• Paul Newman, Kil: variety in the design of Orkney farm kilns
• Sam Seabrook and Brian Wilson, Rebuilding Jeanie MacAlpine's Inn: an interim report

• Geoffrey Stell and Veronica Steele, Leaves from Ian Smith's notebooks
• Malcolm Bangor-Jones, Landholding, settlement and vernacular heritage in west Ardnamurchan
• David L. Roberts, Archaism and aberration in Scottish arch design
• Robin Callander, Corrugated iron building, Gaodhail, Glen Forsa, Mull and a hooded fireplace, Tor na Sean Airidh, Mull
• Elizabeth Beaton, William J. Howard, William S. Hossack, Buildings and architectural traditions in North-East Scotland c. 1600-1914
• Nick Brown, The doocots of Moray
  Meg Buchanan, St Kilda explored

• Nick Brown et al. Craibstone Limekilns, Deskford
• Roy Wentworth and John Sanders, Udrigle House
• Paul Newman and Jocelyn Rendall Verracott, North Ronaldsay: a case for rescue and conservation
• Paul Newman Wooden Lum at Verracott, North Ronaldsay
• Jocelyn Rendall, Scone House at Garso, North Ronaldsay
• Mike Finnie, An Introduction to the Haa Houses of Shetland
• Mike Finnie and Alastair Hamilton Belmont House
• John G. Harrison Mudstone Slates in Early Modern Stirling
• Elizabeth Beaton The Granary, Portsoy, Banffshire
• James Hardie, Sutherland: two cruck houses 1965-66
• Croft 120, Clachtoll, Maidenloch
• Graham Douglas, Corbel Brackets
• Pamela and Laurence Draper, A Note on the Old Settlement at Keil, Isle of Muck
• Elizabeth Beaton, Rothiemay Kilnbarn, Banffshire - Addendum
• Veronica Steele, The Alexander Archer Collection

Vernacular Building 21 (1997)

Download (18MB)

Vernacular Building 22 (1998)

Download (27MB)

• Bruce Walker and Christopher McGregor, Possible Antecedents to Scottish Earth Building Practices in the Mediterranean Countries
• Stephen Whymant, Johan Cottage
• W. Ashley Bartlam, Gazebo at Milton Brodie.
  Pamela and Laurence Draper, A Note on the old settlement at Keil, Isle of Muck
• Jocelyn Rendall and Paul Newman, Westray Buildings Preservation Trust
• Graham J. Douglas, Howlin House, Howlin, Eigg
• Veronica Steele and Ronnie Robertson, SVBWG Visit to the Highland Folk Park, Newtonmore, 23 August, 1997

• Vice Admiral Sir Roderick MacDonald KBE, Black House
• R. C. Callander, Remains of a Hearse House at Parkgate, Kirkmichael Parish, Dumfriesshire.
  Paul Newman, The Crow's Nest, Rackwick, Hoy: an account of the reconstruction of two roofs
• Jocelyn Rendall and Paul Newman, South Hamar, Westray, Orkney
• Sheila Garson, Some traditional buildings: Hollandstoun, Shapinsay, Orkney
• Harry Gordon Slade, Harling and Vernacular, or, 'We are all gentlemen now'.
  Ken Fawell, Carmichael Mill

• Professor Alexander Fenton, Foreword
• Brian Smith, 18th and 19th Century Shetland: the historical background
• Ronnie Robertson, Warming the kirk: 18th-century heating (?) at Lunna Kirk
• Elizabeth Beaton, Lunt Stanes
• Bruce Walker and Chris McGregor, Herring gutters' bothies in Shetland
• Nick Brown, Sand Lodge Doocot, Sandwick, Shetland
• Alastair Hamilton, Shetland's Camping Bods

Vernacular Building 24 (2000)

Download (39MB)

Vernacular Building 25 (2001)

Download (31MB)

Vernacular Building 26 (2002)

Download (26MB)

• Rose Pipes, Edinburgh's Colonies
• Harry Gordon Slade, Two Designs for a lodging for Sir James Clerk of Penicuik at the head of the Blackfriars Wynd, Edinburgh
• P I Newman, Needled roofs in Orkney in 2000
• P I Newman, Stone Igloos: Circular Pig Houses in Orkney
• Jocelyn Rendall, Click Mills east and west
• Elizabeth Beaton and Harry Gordon Slade, The Kiln Barn, Rothiemay, Banffshire
• P D. Humphreys, The 19th-century pavement works at Harrow, Caithness
• Audrey Dakin, De Ruralibus Locis.
  Elizabeth Beaton, Porterage: an English Equivalent to the Shetland Lunt Stane

• W A Bartlam, The Morayshire Brick and Tile Works: A vanished industry
• Sabina Strachan, The Haa of Cruister, Bressay, Shetland
• Elizabeth Beaton and Nick Brown, Recording Scotland's Doocots - an ambitious, yet exciting, SVBWG challenge
• J E C Peters, Shoemakers' Land, Linlithgow, West Lothian
• Alexander Fenton and Elizabeth Beaton, Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group - Past, Present and Future

• Paul Newman, Thatch Traditions in Orkney Farm Buildings
• Elizabeth Beaton, SVBWG Doocot Recording and Publishing Progress Report
• Norma Aldred & Neil Gregory, Scottish Architects' Papers from Rural Practices in the Highlands and North East
• Robin Callander, Note on a Sheep House, Shap Wells, Cumbria
• Bill Millan, A Survey of Buildings 9-11 Mansefield Street, Bathgate, West Lothian

Vernacular Building 27 (2003)

Download (30MB)

Vernacular Building 28 (2004)

Download (31MB)

Vernacular Building 29 (2005)

Download (36MB)

• David Alston, Who Built Cromarty?
  Geoff Leet, Skewputts at Cromarty and Lybster
• Elizabeth Beaton, Miller's House, Montcoffer, Banffshire
• Elizabeth Beaton, Dunmaglass, Inverness-shire; Late 19th Century Images...
• Robin Callander, Roving Records
• Barbara Stuart, A Barn on the Priorslynn Farm in Canonbie, Dumfriesshire
• Bill Millan, The Pantile Experience

• Elizabeth Beaton, Seatowns of the Banffshire-Aberdeenshire Coast: Gardenstown, Crovie and Pennan
• Roger Leitch, Coastal Salmon Buildings and Associated Structures
• Stephanie B Stevenson, 'Houses of the Meaner Sort...'
• Andrew M Sherriff, 21 Shore Street, Anstruther, Fife
• Veronica Fraser, Records of Vernacular Buildings Made by John Lessels, Architect (1809-83)
• Sarah Parkinson, Vernacular Buildings in Scotland's First National Park

• Rosalin Barker, Whitby, North Yorkshire: Changes in shipping practice and their effect on the town
• M Dalland, T G Holden and G F Geddes, The Old Farmhouse, Ewingston, Humbie, East Lothian
• William I Millan, The Bathville Brick
• Geoffrey Stell, Swiss Cottage, Fochabers, Moray: A summary account
• Elizabeth Beaton, Doors Open Day, Moray 24 September 2005
• Dave Hutchinson, Croft 219 Rossal: An abandoned Sutherland crofthouse

Vernacular Building 30

Furniture and Fittings in the Traditional Scottish Home (2006)

Download (51MB)

Vernacular Building 31 (2007-8)

Download (7MB)

Vernacular Building 32 (2008-9)

Download (12MB)

• David Jones, Surveying the Landscape
  Dave Hutchinson, The Vernacular Furniture Maker: His tools and craft
• R Ross Noble, Highland Vernacular Furniture and Context
• Stephen Jackson, Recent Fieldwork in Argyll
  Crissie White, Soft Furnishings in the Vernacular Home
• Elizabeth Beaton, Moirlanich: A Perthshire longhouse and its fittings
• Elizabeth Hancock, Collecting and Display in Museums, Vernacular Furniture in Glasgow, 1900-1950
• Crissie White, Furnished Vernacular Dwellings in Scotland Open to the Public

• Richard Craig, The restoration of Wynd Lodge, Elie
• Penelope Walker, Recesses used by traditional beekeepers in Scotland to protect skeps in winter
• David Connolly, Cousland Nunnery - or is it?
• John R Sherriff, Two Speyside Kilns
• Hilary K Murray, Clay and bool construction near Urquhart, Morayshire
• Graeme Collie, An examination of the different forms of vertical water mills in Orkney
• Charles Hazard, Dry stone dykes of the Estonian Islands
• Geoffrey Stell, Kenneth McCrae's memories of an engineering apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1930s

• Paul Newman, Miles of simmens and an army of volunteers: a traditional thatched roof project in Orkney, 2002-4
• Andrew P K Wright, The Caithness Redundant Buildings Inventory
• Graeme J Collie, A comparison of the horizontal water mill at Dounby, Orkney, with those found in Shetland
• Graeme J Collie, Whin mills – a uniquely Doric phenomenon?
• Stephen Copp, The conservation of the old schoolhouse at Logie, Montrose
• Veronica Fraser, The Violet Banks Collection
• Ingval Maxwell, The early days of the SVBWG: some personal recollections

Vernacular Building 33 (2009-10)

Download (7MB)

Vernacular Building 34 (2010-11)

Download (11MB)

Vernacular Building 35 (2011-12)

Download (11MB)

• John G Harrison, Building Cowane's Hospital, Stirling, 1636-50
• Ted Salthouse, The horizontal water wheel
• Dave Hutchinson, The heather huts at Drumlanrig Castle
• Dave Hutchinson, Snaidheadair - worker with wood in Scotland
• Brian Wilkinson, Scotland's Rural Past: improving knowledge and raising awareness through community involvement

• Thorsten Hanke, Chimney roof and plan in Scottish domestic architecture
• Anne Crone and Coralie Mills, The Native Oak and Pine dendrochronology project - and some observations on timber and woodworking in Scottish buildings, c.1450-1800
• Paul Bishop, Whin millstones in Baldernock, western Central Belt
• Ross Murray and Bruce Walker, Cairniebottom, East Ayrshire: case study of a nineteenth-century smallholding
• Andrew P K Wright, A history of the thatched house at Lonbain, Applecross, Wester Ross
• Nick Brown, Clay thatch roof at 35 Main Street, Newmill, Keith, Moray

• Daniel Rhodes and Tamlin Barton, Hamilton's Land, 42-44 High Street, Linlithgow: a late medieval townhouse
• Sonya Linkskaill, St Fillan's Episcopal Church, Killin: conservation of a tin tabernacle
• Tim Holden, Moirlanich Longhouse, Killin: changing techniques in thatching
• Hugh Dinwoodie, Courrour Old Lodge
• Paul Bishop, Holding our buildings together: pegs, hand-wrought nails, cut nails and wire nails
• Dave Hutchinson, Brickmaking in the early penal settlements of New South Wales, Australia

Vernacular Building 36 (2012-13)

Vernacular Building 38 (2014-15)

• Munro Dunn, The doocots of the Scottish Borders
• Suki Urquhart, Saving, moving and rebuilding a B-listed tin tabernacle in the Highlands
• Alistair Robertson, The rediscovery of 'Carss Castell'; a medieval hall-house within Kerse House, Grangemouth
• Andrew P K Wright, The history of Beaton's Cottage, Kilmuir, Isle of Skye
• Niall A Logan, Wester Acredyke, reconsidered
• Dave Hutchinson, Sundial Cottage, Penpont, Dumfriesshire

• Margaret A Mackay, Alexander Fenton (1929-2012)
• Catherine Gillies, Sandy Fenton and the Hope MacDougall Collection
• Hugh Cheape, 'Every timber in the forest for MacRae's House': creel houses in the Highlands
• Gavin Sprott, Auld Stronpatrick: an old Galloway farm
• John G Harrison, Clay and the buildings of the Bannockburn estate in 1716
• Malcolm Bangor-Jones, Searching for survivors: vernacular buildings around Muir of Ord, Ross and Cromarty
• Nick Brown, Auchmacoy doocot, near Ellon, Aberdeenshire
• Jocelyn Rendall, The Northern Isles: tradition and renovation

• Paul Bishop, Horse gins in Baldernock, East Dunbartonshire
• Sybil Cavanagh and Munro Dunn, Doocots of West Lothian
• Nick Brown, The keepers' steading, Covesea Skerries Lighthouse, Lossiemouth
• Niall A Logan, South Craigend and Cornhill: Reading the ruins
• Rhona Ramsay, Scottish Travellers: The northern bow tent
• David L Roberts, Window Tax
  John R Hume, Houses in Broad Street, Stirling

• Bob Clark, Auchindrain: Living and working with vernacular rural buildings
• Sonya Linskaill, Tomintoul Croft: conservation and adaptation of a nineteenth-century croft house
• Brian Wilkinson, Bennet House: a study house in Culross
• Alastair Weir, North Ayrshire water-powered mills survey
• Paul Bishop, Doocots in East Dunbartonshire: a preliminary compilation
• Niall A Logan, The Baldernock parish boundary stones
• Lizzie Induni, The cultural significance of corrugated iron

• Bruce Walker, Not just ‘crinkly tin’
• Ingval Maxwell, Dr Bruce Walker: personal recollections
• Tom Morton, An enduring legacy: appreciating Bruce Walker
• Geoffrey Stell, A tale of two projects: working with Bruce Walker in the early 1980s
• Niall A Logan, ‘Wretched huts’ and ‘despicable hovels’: the pre-improvement farmhouse in the western lowlands of Scotland
• Jessica Hunnisett-Snow, Reflections on the SPAB survey of thatched buildings in Scotland
• Andrew P K Wright Old Leanach Cottage, Culloden Battlefield
• Hannah Connelly, ‘My ain wee hoose’: Scottish allotment huts in the 1930s
• Maria Carmela Grano and Paul Bishop, Barceló’s ‘missing water mills’ and Scottish and southern Italian horizontal mills

• Bob Clark, Auchindrain at fifty
• Niall A Logan, ‘Primitive modes of building’: farmhouses and cottages in the western lowlands of Scotland, 1620-1820
• Alastair Weir, Water-powered mills of Arran: a gazetteer
• Ian Temple, Scottish doocots: Edinburgh
• Paul Bishop, Masons’ marks on the Dougalston doocot, Milngavie
• Nick Brown, Cullen House, icehouse
• Benjamin Tindall, Hermits and Termits, 64 St Leonard’s Street, Edinburgh: investigation and conservation

• John G Harrison, Archival evidence and urban vernacular houses
• Geoffrey Stell, Early flatting in Scotland, part 1: documentary and physical evidence
• Niall A Logan, ‘In the defuncts merchand buith’: 16th- and 17th-century merchants’ premises
• Mark Cranston, A history of the brick and tile manufacturing industry of Scotland
• Paul Bishop, A rural water mill in Baldernock, East Dunbartonshire

• Alex Gibbons, Priorslynn Bothy, Canonbie
• Jenni Morrision, Fluthers Cottage, Earlston
• Niamh Ni Shúilleabháin, Archbald Moffat House, Moffat
• Niall A Logan, Little Bruach-caoruinn, Stirlingshire: surviving afforestation and harvesting
• Geoffrey Stell, Early flatting in Scotland, part 2: evaluating the parallels and explanations
• Barry O'Reilly, Vernacular architecture in Ireland: developing a strategy

• Niall A Logan, From mud hut to White House
• John Whiteclay Chambers II, Steven J Golisano and Karen M Kelley, Scottish immigrants and a 1713 East Jersey cottage in America
• Iain S Bruce, The Scottish diaspora, the balloon frame and a missing link
• Richard Laing, Stone buildings of the early Scottish diaspora in Nova Scotia
• Stuart King, The Scottish farmhouse in colonial Tasmania
• Geoffrey Stell, Buildings associated with Scots in Europe: two case studies, in France and Lithuania
• Rachael Thomas, The MacPhees' House: a Scottish Travellers' over-winter house

• Malcolm Fraser and Mikey Davidson, Fanks, faulds and keb-hooses
• Tom Morton and Rebecca Little, Exploring the origins of vernacular earth construction in Neolithic Orkney
• Alex Green, Foresterhill: a water-driven meal mill in Aberdeenshire
• Niall A. Logan, A hip-cruck slot in Argyll
  Jenni Morrison, A house in Castle Street, Anstruther, Fife
• Mark Watson, Where are the weavers' windows? Part 2: domestic linen weavers

Essays in Honour of Sonia Hackett, Anne Riches and Geoffrey Stell (eds) 1992

A Study of Examples in the Badenoch and Strathspey District in the Highland Region, Derek Kerr, 1986

• 'A Good Doctor': Sonia Hackett, HBM Architect John Knight
• Medieval Structures as Historical Documents, Richard Fawcett
• Sources for the Study of Farm Buildings, Anne Riches
• Notes on Surveying Techniques, Graham Douglas and Ian Gray
• Stone: The Changing Perception of Traditional Build, Ingval Maxwell
• Traditional Lime Mortar, Pat Gibbons
  Claywall, Bruce Walker
• Sources of Slate in Banffshire and Aberdeenshire, Elizabeth Beaton
• Iron in Building in Scotland: Its Use and Conservation, John R Hume
• Glazed Windows in Scotland and the Use of Metals, Elizabeth Whitfield
• A Note on Medieval Timber Flooring and Roofing, Geoffrey Stell
• Taighean Tugha Tirisdeach/The Thatched Houses of Tiree, James R Souness

• An overview of an important building type often overlooked.

• An overview of materials and their uses including Walling Materials (stone, render, masonry features, clay, brickwork, fireclay and incidental detail) and Roof Coverings (thatch, slate, tile, timber, metal, concrete).

• Outcome of a visit to the kilns by 29 Group Members, this booklet discusses the local background and history of the site, the methods of burning lime and the way the site was worked before presenting a detailed survey of the site and describing the methodology of the survey.

• As the Introduction concludes: Scotland's harbour lights form a distinctive minor building type, clearly illustrating approaches to harbour design and illumination over nearly two centuries. The ingenious use of a range of materials, changing as new technology became available is striking. The Introduction is followed by a Gazetteer illustrated with line drawings of surviving harbour lights.

• Proceedings of a joint SVBWG/ School of Scottish Studies conference, this is an overview of the central feature of the Scots home, from earliest times to the recent past. It takes in archaeological evidence, the distinctive chimney pieces of grand Scots homes, the hearth in folklore, in Victorian genre paintings and as depicted on the remarkable Dumfries 'Freedom Box'.

• Developed from the notes produced for the Group's visit to the Isle of Man in 1993, this is the first overview of the material. The buildings are put firmly into their social and economic context and there is a useful glossary of Manx terms for the buildings and their component parts.

• Doocots or dovecotes are amongst the oldest farm buildings in Scotland, originally intended to house doves farmed for their flesh. Early cook-books contain many recipes for pies, roasts and stews. The cotes are fascinating and varied, ranging from the architecturally significant to simple structures.
• This publication not only records doocots in a historically important and fertile area of north-east Scotland, it is also the first in a series of regional guides devoted to the subject published by the SVBWG. Similar publications covering North and South Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian and the Highlands and Islands are in course of preparation.
• 'The Doocots of Scotland: Moray' stems from many years research by Nick Brown. It provides comprehensive notes on the buildings and pigeon farming besides a detailed gazetteer and is fully illustrated by the author.

• Doocots of Lanarkshire is the second of regional guides to doocots, written by Munro Dunn who is a native of the area. He has catalogued over 50 known cotes with descriptive notes, illustrations and background history for the 25 surviving.

• Doocots of Lanarkshire is the third of regional guides to doocots, written by Elizabeth Beaton who has written extensively on Highland vernacular buildings. Information is presented on around fifty surviving doocots, with many 'lost doocots' recorded.

• Doocots of East Lothian is the fourth regional guide to doocots, written by Munro Dunn and David Elder. Information is presented on fifty-two surviving doocots, with many 'lost doocots' recorded.

   

• Doocots of the Scottish Borders is the fifth regional study of doocots, and is written by Munro Dunn. This is an off-print of an article in Vernacular Building 36.