Inarchaeology, awheelhouse is aprehistoric structure from theIron Age found inScotland. The term was first coined after the discovery of a ruined mound in 1855.[1] The distinctivearchitectural form related to the complexroundhouses constitute the main settlement type in theWestern Isles in the closing centuries BC.[2] A total of 62 sites have now been identified in theNorthern andWestern Isles, and on the north coast ofCaithness andSutherland.[3][4]
Amateur enthusiasts did some excavation in the 19th century, but professional examination of the sites did not begin until the 1930s, when digs were undertaken atJarlshof andGurness. No work of a modern standard was done in theHebrides until 1946 at Clettreval[5] onNorth Uist.[6]
Sometimes referred to as "aisledroundhouses"[6] their characteristic features include an outer wall within which a circle of stone piers (bearing a resemblance to the spokes of a wheel) form the basis forlintel arches supportingcorbelled roofing with a hearth at the hub.[7] About a third are double-walled. They range in diameter from 4 to 11.5 metres (13 to 38 feet). Those sites that have been dated tend to fall within the period 25 BC to 380 AD. In the Northern Isles, 72% are found in association withbroch sites, and they are of a later date than these towered structures in all cases. No sites in the west have such an association, an as yet unresolved enigma.[8] The majority are dug into the landscape and only theirthatched roofs would have been visible above the ground — although these would have been 6 metres or more in height.[9] Other examples were built above ground, such as Clettraval andBagh nam Feadag (onGrimsay).[10]
Many sites incorporate animal burials beneath the floor, the most common bones being those of young lambs. Other bone deposits include the heads of a human and agreat auk at Cnip onLewis, and sixty bone burials including cattle, sheep and pig at Sollas in North Uist.[11] Five sites includemenhirs and fifteen a red and black mortar. These features tends to support the hypothesis that the primary purpose of these buildings was ritualistic.[12] Confusingly therefore, "wheelhouses" are neither wheels, nor perhaps houses.[6]
The highly restricted nature of their geographical locations suggests that they may have been contained within a political or cultural frontier of some kind. The co-incidence of their arrival and departure being associated with the period ofRoman influence in Scotland is a matter of ongoing debate.[13]
