Vernacular architecture follows traditions passed down from person to person, generation to generation, at any level of society.

The buildings that attract our interest vary in size and construction from small, temporary shelters, through cottages, tenements and farm steadings, to large, enduring tower houses. Usage is likewise diverse, including seasonal shelters, permanent dwellings of all sizes, farms, smithies, watermills and larger industrial concerns.

They are found throughout the country, in both rural and urban settings, and represent many aspects of our history, and of Scotland’s identity. What they all have in common is their construction from local materials using local methods, resulting in characteristics that reflect their environments, so that they sit comfortably within the landscape.

The latest issue includes articles on fanks, faulds and keb-hooses, vernacular earth construction in Neolithic Orkney, a water-driven meal mill in Aberdeenshire, a hip-cruck slot in Argyll, a house in Anstruther and domestic linen weavers.