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Vikings in Scotland
The native people whom the Vikings encountered in the Northern Isles were Picts and theBrough of Birsay in north west Orkney was inhabited by a Pictish community.The Norse settlement appears to have been established early in the ninth century and thediscovery of native Pictish artefacts in the Norse houses of the ninth and tenth centurydemonstrates that there was contact between the two peoples.These include native Pictish types, Scandinavian artefacts and imports from Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England.Birsay is mentioned in the Norse Orkneyinga Saga written around 1200 AD.These pages are mainly about the Brough of Birsay although artefacts from other Orkneylocations are included.
Early Viking Houses on the Brough of Birsay, Orkney
The island was taken over by the Norwegian Vikings in the 9th century and the earlier Pictishhouses were demolished to make way for new homes. Many Pictish and Norse objects have beenfound during excavation.Up the slope from the churchyard is a typical group of Norse houses , sometimes called half-houses because each consists of a single large room. The walls were built with a thick inner faceof stone, a core of earth and turf and a rough outer face of stone and turf with thickness varying
 
between 1m and 1.5m. There were no windows but in some cases as many as 3 doors. Only thelowest courses of the walls survive but these would originally have stood to about 2 metres witha timber framed roof carrying a turf mantle. In the centre of each house was a long hearth,flanked on either side by wide wooden benches. Internal timber posts would have helped tosupport the roof. Little of this is visible today apart from the raised footing of the benches.Alongside these houses is a barn with a byre at the far end where there is a stone covered drain.All the buildings are aligned downslope to reduce drainage problems. The results from theexcavations which have taken place here show that throughout the four or five centuries of rebuilding , the same building plots have been maintained and respected from Pictish into Norsetimes.The Brough of Birsay is a small tidal island off the north west tip of mainlnd Orkney. This showsthe causeway which you need to walk across to raech the island - access to the Brough isrestricted to a few hours each day, at either side of low tideEarly Viking houses
 
 The early Norse settlement was served by a system of stone built drains . The covering slabs arevisible hereThe drains are under the paved causeway which ends abrubtly at the cliff edge nowadays - one of the casualties of coastal erosion. It has parallel sides and a sloping floor. It must have been agrand entrance way though the width may have been designed to allow boats to be drawn up outof the reach of the sea.
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