Former Longhouse At Canna

Former Longhouse at Canna

This building, now used as a barn, was originally a longhouse, probably dating from the 16th century with alterations made around the late 17th century and further considerable changes during the 18th and 19th centuries when it became a farm building. The walls are constructed of granite rubble with rough quoins, and at the front the walls have been built up slightly under the eaves with cob. The roof is corrugated iron, half-hipped at either end.

The original longhouse plan consisted of a shippon at the lower end with an adjoining through passage, followed by a small hall with a fireplace backing onto the passage, and a very small inner room. Around the late 17th century, the shippon was converted into domestic accommodation of relatively high standard, as evidenced by the chamfered and stopped beams and joists that survive in this area. The room arrangement has since changed further; the passage was widened and a stone wall built up so that it now takes up part of the former shippon. The hall and inner room have both lost their ceilings and the partition between them has disappeared. Evidence for the former inner room exists in the form of a ledge part way up the gable end wall with two large projecting stones at intervals, which presumably carried beams running at right angles to the cross beam in the hall. The rear doorway of the through passage has been blocked. The building was formerly two storeys but is now partially single-storeyed.

The front elevation features a central, probably original, wide doorway to the passage with a rough hewn granite lintel. To the left is a narrower doorway to the original shippon with a loading doorway above. Both ground floor doors are 19th or 20th century plank doors. To the right of centre is an inserted double doorway with a timber lintel. Two small window openings are located to the far right on the ground and first floors. The rear face has a wide inserted opening at right of centre on the ground floor with a large roughly squared granite lintel. Above this is a small opening, and to the left is a larger first floor opening. To the right of this doorway is a blocked ventilation slit to the shippon with granite framing. Towards the left end of the building are remains of a single storey cattle shelter with upright granite posts. At the front of the upper end, a later linhay is attached to the house, projecting from it at right angles.

Interior

The interior has been much altered but some early features remain and the former plan form is discernible. The hall contains an axial granite-framed fireplace with a large granite lintel and monolithic jambs, all roughly chamfered with worn stops. A granite relieving arch above the lintel has now cracked. A blocked oven opening at the left hand side has an arched granite-framed opening, and there is a bulge in the wall to the left of the fireplace, presumably to accommodate the oven. A stone wall beside the fireplace extends to the rear wall of the hall and has a blocked doorway to the passage with a slightly cambered wooden lintel and jamb of dressed granite blocks to the right.

One cross beam in the hall, possibly re-used, comes only slightly in front of the fireplace and does not fully span the width of the room. It is chamfered on both sides with indiscernable stops and has mortices for joists on both sides. There are two blocked openings on the rear wall; the one to the left shows two stages of blocking with two wooden lintels one above the other. The blocked opening to the right also has a wooden lintel. In the upper left hand corner of the former inner room, extending up to the height of the shelf from ground level, is a small square stone projection.

In the through passage, the chimney back is constructed of granite ashlar blocks. There are two cross beams and a half beam, the latter at the back of the chimney wall, which is chamfered but cut off before it reaches the front wall. The central cross beam is chamfered with very worn stops. The beam at the lower end is now embedded in a stone wall which has been inserted beneath it; it is chamfered with worn stops. All three beams rest on corbel-stones at the rear wall. A blocked doorway to the hall is visible, as is a blocked rear doorway to the passage.

Two cross beams exist in the lower room (which has no access from the passage); the lower one is 20th century. The other is identical to beams in the passage with a hollow elongated step stop discernible. Between this beam and the one embedded in the partition wall to the passage, all except two of the original joists survive, of relatively small dimensions and chamfered and stopped like the beams, probably dating to the later 17th century. In the gable end wall of the lower room is a blocked window opening with a wooden lintel and splayed sides which still retain their old plaster. On the rear wall is a small blocked opening for the ventilation slit.

The older roof trusses that survive consist of straight principal rafters morticed and pegged at the apex and straight collars which are halved and pegged onto the trusses. There is no sign of purlins having been trenched or threaded. One truss cuts across the now partly dismantled chimney stack. The roof was probably renewed in the 18th century.