Orkney Islands - 16

The central hearth would have heated the houses - as well as providing the cooking facility.



The houses would have been very dark had there been no interior lighting except that radiating from the fire in the hearth. And no surviving objects resemble lamps.

There would have been little ventilation. The air inside the houses would have been very smoky. This could have allowed food to have been smoked in the roof.

Today we see only the skeletons of the people's box bed, the stone remains. Bracken would have served as a form of mattress; sheepskins and other animal skins would have been used as blankets.