Atlantic roundhouse

View from inside the remains of the complex Atlantic roundhouse at Feranach, Sutherland

In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Circular houses were the predominant architectural style of the British landscape since the second millennium BC (Early Bronze Age). Although not many of these roundhouses have survived, it has been ascertained that they were based on wattle and daub walls with thatched conical roofs.[1]

In 1970, archaeologist Chris Musson estimated that there were 200 certified roundhouses in Scotland and Britain. A United Kingdom-based archaeology group today estimates that there are over 4000 roundhouses. The oldest documented roundhouse was founded in the 3rd millennium BC in South-West Scotland. The Bronze Age people were known to adapt the leveled upland landscapes situated in hillsides.[2]

  1. ^ "Brochs.The Roundhouse Tradition". www.odysseyadventures.ca. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  2. ^ CA (26 August 2008). "Roundhouses". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 17 September 2020.