Above: Reconstruction of a cottar's house
In an earlier essay, I described the hierarchy of Scottish agriculture at the beginning of the 18th century. Naturally, that hierarchy was reflected in the workers' homes. I'll start by describing the living conditions for a cottar, i.e., a subtenant or labourer who worked for the tenant on a year-to-year basis.
Smout (p. 139) reproduced a description of cottar housing from a writing at the time. The vulgar houses and what are seen in the villages are low and feeble. Their walls are made of a few stones jumbled together without mortar to cement them, on which they set up pieces of wood meeting at the top, ridge fashion, but so ordered that there is neither sightlines nor strength; they cover these houses with turf often an inch thick and in the shape of larger tiles which they fasten with wooden pins and renew as often as there is occasion; and that is very frequently done. T'is rare to find chimneys in these places; a small vent in the roof sufficing to convey the smoke away.
In areas where trees were scarce, the timber beams supporting the roof were the most valuable part of the hovel. Courts laid special penalties on those who took their roof tree with them when they were removed from their dwellings. A byre for farm animals was part of the cottage. It was separated from the living quarters by a wall and had a separate entrance (see above picture). Walls were of turf or stone, sometimes of cob or wattle - they were seldom as high as a standing man. Thatching materials were turf or heather, straw being regarded as animal fodder too precious to be squandered on buildings. Wood or stone floors and any form of ceiling apparently did not exist; and windows, if there were any, formed small square openings without glass. The fire would have been built in the middle of the floor and, without a chimney, the house would have been smoky as well as dark. Below is a picture of the inside of a reconstructed cottar.
These dwellings had a relatively short useful life. When their house was dry enough to burn, it would serve them as fuel and they'd build another. Inside the cottar, possessions were minimal. Presumably they had some plates and spoons of some kind along with a kitchen kist (chest) and a cooking pot. They may or may not have had beds. It's improbable that they could boast of anything else except the odd stool.
The house of the husbandman (i.e., the tenant farmer) was larger than the cottar's hut since it had to be big enough not only for his own family, but also for the servants who boarded with him. (Married labourers/servants had to have their own quarters - a requirement that often delayed couples from getting married.) As with the cottar's hut, the tenant's home also had a byre that was separated by boards from the living area.
From Smout, here's a description of a stone cottage that flanked the entrance of a laird's home farm in 1701. There was a single room 13 feet by 9 feet. It was lit by an unglazed window two feet by three feet, with a chimney hearth in one corner and what appears to be a boxbed in the other. Adjacent to the house is a separate raised privy with 3 seats, from which the excrement fell into an open midden yard to accumulate until cleared away for use on the farm.
All of the humans lived under the same roof, although possibly not all in one room. The husbandman and his wife would sleep in a box bed with their children and servant curled up in their plaids on straw pallets around the fire. In some houses, there would be more rooms, more box beds, and more privacy.
The husbandman had more possessions than the cottar, but nothing substantial other than the bed. In addition to the meal kist and a stool or two, he might have a pot, a kettle, a chair, a few dishes, cups, and some wooden plates.
Sources
Smout, T.C. (1998). A History of the Scottish People, Fontana Press.
Various web sites, including
Auchindrain Township Open Air Museum (http://www.auchindrainmuseum.org.uk/township.html)
Medieval Women (http://mw.mcmaster.ca/scriptorium/alice_site/cottage_gallery.html)
Rural Life in the 18th Century (www.electricscotland.com/history/rural_lifendx.htm)
Perthshire Diary (www.perthshirediary.com)