Oakbank Crannog forum 1 room
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Yes, it's interesting philosophically, watching the evolution of the house. There's millions of them of them now - those little boxes for living in. I wonder when the transition from roundhouse to rect. house occurred ?

The round stone sheepfolds, maybe three hundred years old, are the last vestiges of the roundhouse tradition - as I see it. I remember a lecture by an archaeologist where he told us that the space within the circular structure had defined uses - this bit was the kitchen, this bit the sleeping area - and that that layout was similar within other roundhouses - like we nowadays have the kitchen beside the back door and the sleeping area in a loft ...

The the long and rectangular house tradition came from the Mesolithic.
In Britain the long house gradually gave way to the round house, although I believe Clive Waddingtons Mesolithic house at Howick is round.
This movement from the linear structure to the circle is also reflected in monuments.
I recommend Richard Bradley's book "The Signifcance of Monuments" for a decent overview.

<The round stone sheepfolds, maybe three hundred years old, are the last vestiges of the roundhouse tradition - as I see it>

There's an nice example of this in Langdale, right up at the end of the valley, just to the left of the Cumbrian way. It's about 4ft high, and still has different rooms.