The furniture in the village houses was largely made of stone for two related reasons – Firstly, Orkney , then as now, was almost without trees – scondly the nature of the local flagstone, its ready availability and workability makes it ideal construction material for most purposes.
The Beds
Today we see only the skeletons of the peoples box beds, the stone remains. Usually the beds have cupboards set into the wall above them
The Dresser
In each house the dresser faces the door and dominates your view as you enter. This may have been a simple storage unit. There is a stone seat in front of the dresser in the best preserved houses.
Central Hearth
In the centre of the house between the door and the dresser is the hearth. But what did the people burn in it? While there is plenty of usable peat in Orkney today, this did not form until several centuries after the settlement was abandoned.
The Boxes
Set into the floors of the houses, near the hearth are stone boxes. The joints of these were luted – cemented with clay – to make them watertight.
The Cells
These are cupboards, alcoves or compartments recessed into the walls of the houses and vary in size and ease of access. Most of these are storage spaces. Some cells have drains running under them but because the drains cant be mapped properly without demolishing buildings its cant be said for sure that every house had one. Insofar as the excavation of the drains which has been possible it may be that we are seeing one of the earliest comprehensice systems of indoor sanitation.
The Doors
The doors were not hinged. You can still see the two doorstops, one projecting from the floor, the other from the ceiling of the entrance passage. The door itself was a slab of stone large enough to fill the entrance gap. The door was pinned against the projecting stops by a bar crossing behind it and fitting into slots in the wall of the entrance passage which allowed the door to be opened or closed. The bars were made of whalebone or wood.
