Roundhouse (dwelling)

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The roundhouse is a type of house with a circular plan, built in western Europe before the Roman occupation. The wall was made either of stone or of wooden posts joined by wattle-and-daub panels, and the roof was conical and thatched.

Most of what is assumed about these structures is derived from the layout of the post-holes, although a few timbers have been found preserved in bogs. The rest has been filled in by experimental archaeology, which has shown the most likely form and function of the buildings. For example, experiments have shown that a conical roof with a pitch of about 45 degrees would have been the strongest design. It has also been shown that, although a fire would have been lit inside for heating and cooking, there could not have been a smoke hole in the apex of the roof, for this would have caused an updraft that would have rapidly set fire to the thatch. Instead, smoke would have accumulated harmlessly inside the roof space, and slowly leaked out through the thatch.

Many modern simulations of roundhouses have been built, for example at:

Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire, England
Bodrifty Iron Age Settlement, Cornwall, England
Castell Henllys, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Flag Fen near Peterborough, England
Mellor roundhouse reconstruction, Cheshire, England
Peat Moors Visitors Centre, Somerset, England
Tatton Iron Age roundhouse and pit, Cheshire, England

The palloza of the Ancares mountains in Spain is similar but with stone walls. These buildings are described as "pre-Roman" but were used in remote areas until the second half of the 20th Century. In northern Scotland, an architectural family of stone built roundhouses known as Atlantic Roundhouses were constructed.