The oldest house for which there is evidence in Britain is the oval structure of wooden posts found at
Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone.[4] The stone building at Knap of Howar at Papa Westray, Orkney is one of the oldest surviving houses in north-west Europe, making use of locally gathered rubble in a dry-stone construction, it was probably occupied for 900 years, between 3700 and 2800 BCE.[3]Skara Brae on the Mainland of Orkney also dates from this era, occupied from about 3100 to 2500 BCE and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village.[4]
There are also large numbers of
Stenness on the mainland of Orkney, which date from about 3100 BCE, of four stones, the tallest of which is 16 feet (5 m) in height.[8]
The Callanish Stones, one of the finest stone circles in Scotland
In contrast to the Highlands and Islands where stone was extensively used, in the south and east the most visible architectural survivals of the Neolithic are mainly earthen
cursus monuments, mortuary enclosures, timber halls, and other forms of enclosure.[10] Bank barrows are parallel-sided mounds, usually flanked by ditches on either side. Originally believed to be Roman in origin, cursus monuments also consist of long parallel lengths of banks of earth with external ditches, but with an open avenue or enclose between. Both forms are usually associated with burial chambers.[11] Examples of bank barrows in Scotland include from Perthshire the long mound at Auchenlaich and the hybrid bank barrow/cursus monument at Cleaven Dyke, which stretches for over 1.5 miles (2 km).[12][13] Mortuary enclosures are usually sub-rectangular banks with external ditches and raised platforms of stone or wood within them, thought by J. G. Scott to be used for the exposure of corpses prior to burial elsewhere, although this interpretation is disputed. Remains of mortuary enclosures of this period are often found under long barrows. Key examples include Pitnacree, Perthshire and two closely related sites at Lochhill and Slewcairn, both in Kirkcudbright.[14] The timber halls are probably unique to Scotland and were massive roofed buildings made of oak, all of which seem to have been subsequently burnt down. There is debate as to the role of these buildings, which have been seen variously as regular farming homesteads of Neolithic families and as related to a series of monumental constructions such as barrows.[15] The hall at Balbridie, Aberdeenshire was 85 feet (26 m) long, 43 feet (13 m) wide and may have had a roof 30 feet (9 m) high, making it large enough to accommodate up to 50 people.[16]
As bronze working developed from about 2000 BCE, there was a decline in the building of large new structures, which, with a reduction of the total area under cultivation, suggests a fall in population.
Sumburgh in Shetland.[18] At Jarlshof these are oval houses with thick stone walls, which may have been partly subterranean at the earliest period of inhabitation, a technique that provided both structural stability and insulation.[19] There is also evidence of the occupation of crannogs, roundhouses partially or entirely built on artificial islands, usually in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters.[20] They were often constructed of layers of brushwood and rubble. Sometimes they were revetted around the edges with vertical piles and sometimes surfaced with logs of oak.[21]
The creation of cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into this period. There are approximately fifty
Eildon hill near Melrose in the Scottish Borders, from around 1000 BCE, which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop,[23] and Traprain Law in East Lothian, which had a 20-acre enclosure, sectioned in two places west of the summit, made up of a coursed, stone wall with a rubble core.[24]
In the early Iron Age, from the seventh century BCE, cellular houses begin to be replaced on the northern isles by simple Atlantic roundhouses, substantial circular buildings with a drystone construction. Important examples are at Quanterness, Bu, Pierowall, and Tofts Ness on Orkney, and at Clickimin in Shetland. From about 400 BC more complex Atlantic roundhouses began to be built, as at Howe, Orkney and Crosskirk, Caithness.[25]
The most massive constructions that date from this era are the circular
Archaeologists since the 1960s have distinguished brochs from smaller structures of similar construction, usually called
hillforts in Scotland, most located below the Clyde-Forth line. The majority are circular, with a single palisade around an enclosure. Most are relatively small, covering one or two acres, but some are much larger as at Castle O'er, Birrenwark, Cadimuir, Cadroner and White Meldon.[32] They appear to have been largely abandoned in the Roman period, but some seem to have been reoccupied after their departure.[33]
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