Page "Skara Brae" Paragraph 5

The dwellings contain a number of stone-built pieces of furniture, including cupboards, dressers, seats, and storage boxes.

Each dwelling was entered through a low doorway that had a stone slab door that could be closed " by a bar that slid in bar-holes cut in the stone door jambs ".

A sophisticated drainage system was even incorporated into the village's design, one that included a primitive form of toilet in each dwelling.

Seven of the houses have similar furniture, with the beds and dresser in the same places in each house.

The dresser stands against the wall opposite the door, and would have been the first thing seen by anyone entering the dwelling.

Each of these houses has the larger bed on the right side of the doorway and the smaller on the left.

Lloyd Laing noted that this pattern accorded with Hebridean custom up to the early 20th century suggesting that the husband's bed was the larger and the wife's was the smaller.

The discovery of beads and paint-pots in some of the smaller beds may support this interpretation.

Additional support may come from the recognition that stone boxes lie to the left of most doorways, forcing the person entering the house to turn to the right-hand, ' male ', side of the dwelling.

At the front of each bed lie the stumps of stone pillars that may have supported a canopy of fur ; another link with recent Hebridean style.