Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/217

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INHABITED SITES
209

still entire. On Eilean-na-Naoimh (Island of the Saints), on the west coast of Argyllshire, may also be seen two ruined beehive cells associated with the ruins of a small church. The beehive principle is frequently met with in the roofing of underground dwellings and chambered cairns.

Underground Dwellings.—As places of refuge and habitation underground chambers have been used both in Great Britain and Ireland. In Scotland they are known as "Eirde Houses" or "Weems," in Cornwall as "Fogous," and in Ireland as "Souterrains."

In Scotland such dwellings had a wide distribution, attaining their greatest development in the district between the river Tay and the Moray Firth—a district generally recognized as the original home of the Picts; and hence these underground dwellings are sometimes called Picts' Houses. They are generally met with as isolated dwellings concealed below the surface, but sometimes they occur in groups, as on the moor of Kildrummy, in Aberdeenshire, where nearly fifty were found extending over an area of less than a couple of square miles. They are long, low, narrow galleries, always more or less curved, and gradually expanding, both laterally and vertically, till, towards the inner extremity, they may measure as much as 10 or 12 feet in width, and 6 or 7 in height. They are most frequently built of undressed dry stones, with convergent walls bearing heavy lintels;