A development worthy of Barrett Homes; this is a discrete arrangement of fifteen houses dating back to 3000 BC. All of this is similar to the posh neighbourhood up the road (Skara Brae).
Barnhouse is different from Skrara Brae. The houses (what we can see of them now) are free standing. They are placed around a central open area.
Archaeologists see this area divided into ‘manufacturing zones’ the making a pottery, the working of Flint, and shaping of bones and treating of hides. It was an early form of what we now know as the industrial estate.
It was all abandoned around 206 BC. Then another, larger, structure was constructed on top. This new edifice faces northwest. So the mid summer sunset shines along its central passageway. This is similar to Maeshowe another gem just down the road. So the theory is that the new building (known as structure eight) was for ceremonial rather than dwelling purposes.
Will any of our current industrial estates, for example the Slough Trading Estate, some 600 acres, be raised to the ground or deserted only to have a ceremonial edifice built on top of it?