Prehistoric Scotland - Farmers and Monument Builders

Farmers and Monument Builders

Neolithic farming brought permanent settlements. At Balbridie in Aberdeenshire crop markings were investigated and ditches and post holes found revealing a massive timber-framed building dating to about 3600 BC. An almost identical building was excavated at Claish near Stirling. At the islet of Eilean Domhnuill, Loch Olabhat on North Uist, Unstan ware pottery suggests a date of 3200-2800 BC for what may be the earliest crannog.

The remainder of this section focuses mainly on the Orkney Islands, where there is a Neolithic landscape rich in sites amazingly preserved by prevalent use of the local stone which appears on the shore ready split into convenient building slabs. This is only a selection of highlights and there are many other examples across the country, often under the care of Historic Scotland.

At the wonderfully well preserved stone house at Knap of Howar on the Orkney island of Papa Westray (occupied from 3500 BC to 3100 BC) the walls stand to a low eaves height, and the stone furniture is intact. Evidence from middens shows that the inhabitants were keeping cattle, sheep and pigs, farming barley and wheat and gathering shellfish as well as fishing for species which have to be line caught using boats. Finely made and decorated Unstan ware pottery links the inhabitants to chambered cairn tombs nearby and to sites far afield including Balbrindi and Eilean Domhnuill.

The houses at Skara Brae on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands are very similar, but grouped into a village linked by low passageways. This settlement was occupied from about 3000 BC to 2500 BC. Pottery found here is of the grooved ware style which is found across Britain as far away as Wessex.

About 6 miles (10 km) from Skara Brae, grooved ware pottery was found at the Standing Stones of Stenness (originally a circle) which lie centrally in a close group of three major monuments. Maeshowe, the finest example of the passage grave type of chambered cairn (radiocarbon dated to before 2700 BC) lies just to the east. The Ring of Brodgar circle of standing stones is across a bridge immediately to the north. This circle was one of the first to be analysed by Professor Alexander Thom to establish the likely use of standing stones as astronomical observatories. Another Neolithic village has been found nearby at Barnhouse Settlement, and the inference is that these farming people were the builders and users of these mysterious structures.

As with the standing stones at Callanish on Lewis and other standing stones across Scotland, these monuments form part of the Europe wide Megalithic culture which also produced Stonehenge in Wiltshire and the stone rows at Carnac in Brittany.

The widespread connections these people had is shown by offerings imported from Cumbria and Wales left on the sacred hilltop at Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian, as early as 3500 BC.