Round Houses

Excavation on St. Patrick’s Isle at Peel has uncovered a number of timber roundhouses up to ten metres in diameter, and including a grain store which burned down some 2,400 years ago. An Iron Age community had made use of the natural defences of the islet; it seems very possible that the site was occupied by a chieftain, and that the granary held his accumulated wealth.

Two or three hundred years later, great timber roundhouses, up to 30 metres in diameter, were being built in inaccessible wetland sites.

The reconstructed roundhouse in the House of Manannan at Peel is based on the remains of two such buildings found on private land at Ballacagen near Castletown. Their inhabitants managed woodland, grew cereals, raised cattle, wove textiles, worked metals, and - to judge from the imported glass and metal objects found - traded with the outside world.

The outer wall was made from vertical posts set close together in a foundation trench, and packed with stones to keep them upright. Large wooden posts, arranged in concentric rings, supported a roof of timber and turf. The central hearth was formed by a bed of stones. Areas inside the roundhouse were paved with small stones. The entrance was also paved with larger stones so that the threshold did not wear down.