Barnhouse Settlement

Nearest town:
Stromness (6km WSW)
OS reference:
HY308127
OS sheet:
6
Latitude:
58° 59' 45.7 N
Longitude:
3° 12' 16.19 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Barnhouse Settlement by A R Cane

Panorama of the big hoose with Loch of Harray behind.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Nov 17, 2016
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

House 2 in early December with Structure 8 behind

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Dec 8, 2014
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

House 3 entrance at left. Watchstone by red roofed house in background and Brodgar Standing Stone Pair at far right behind marking Lesser Wall of Brodgar

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Jan 2, 2014
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

House 3 looking over to Firth, House 6 upper right

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Jan 2, 2014
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

Barnhouse Neolithic Settlement looking southwards

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Jan 2, 2014
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

House 6 with houses 2 & 3 behind, in the background Stones of Stenness at left and Watch Stone to left of Odin Cottage

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Jan 2, 2014
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

view over village to Ness of Brodgar funerary complex, Watch Stone extreme left

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Aug 20, 2006
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

Another angle on 21864/31381, house nearest to lochside

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Jul 26, 2006
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by wideford

inner structure detail at back of lochside house 36623

Image credit: wideford
wideford
wideford Apr 23, 2005
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by Moth

View across the larger building in the settlement towards the Watch Stone

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 26, 2004
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by Moth

View across the better preserved of the small ‘houses’ towards Maeshowe

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 26, 2004
Image of Barnhouse Settlement by Moth

The view across 2 smaller ‘houses’ towards Brogar

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 26, 2004

Articles

Barnhouse Settlement

C
CARL Jul 9, 2012

Visited 4.6.12

When I arrived at the site a Historic Scotland ‘Ranger’ was just finishing giving a talk.
During the summer months there are free talks given at both Stenness and Brodgar.

Surely these buildings are related to the stone circle?

Between the building and the loch I noticed two large stones.
One is standing (right on the loch side) and about 1 metre high. It looks old and was covered in lichen.
The other is prostrate and is about 2 metres x 1 metre.
I have not seen any mention of these stones before so I assume they are ‘modern’?

Barnhouse Settlement

Vicster
Vicster Oct 27, 2009

Whilst we were “ooohing” and “aaaahhing” at the wonder of it all at Stenness, Alan had wandered off towards the Barnhouse site. For him, this was an incredibly personal journey, returning to Orkney for the first time since he worked on the excavations at Barnhouse in the late 1980s. Again, I was almost dumb-founded by the archaeological remains of this site; where else can you see such outstanding remains of what was clearly a domestic location, situated so close to monuments such as Stenness and Brodgar? One of the things that has always frustrated me when I have visited sites across the UK and Ireland is “where the bloody hell did they live?” Barnhouse goes some way to easing that frustration and gives an insight into the domestic lives of these monument builders. To me, this is as important and revealing a site as Skara Brae and yet we had the place to ourselves. No tourist buses, no visitor centre and no guides telling us what we can and can’t do. Alan explained that the Loch had not existed during the Neolithic period and there was likely to be more archaeological remains under the water. We wandered around, stumbling upon large stones in the landscape and raised mounds, wondering at what it all meant. Fascinating.

Barnhouse Settlement

Hob
Hob Jun 25, 2004

A short hop acros the stile from the stones of Stenness, Barnhouse has two anomalous buildings. They certaintly are bigger than both those surrounding them, and the ones at Skara Brae. It has been suggested that they are not dwellings, but maybe some kind of communal space related to the Stones of Stenness.

There are more structures still under the surface, the whole site having not yet been fully excavated.

Barnhouse Settlement

S
stewartb Mar 12, 2003

This Neolithic settlement is contemporary with Maes Howe, Stennes and Brodgar and may well have been home to the people who built the monuments.

One of the houses is of a type I’ve not come across before in that it is more or less symmetrical about the entrance, sort of a semi-detached or duplex. However, the symmetry is not exact as one of the dwellings is bigger than the other.

Sites within 20km of Barnhouse Settlement

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