Fig. 81.—Beehive house, Inishmurray, Sligo.
Such ancient dwellings are in Scotland known as "weems," from "Uamha," a cave. In one of these, at Monzie, in Perthshire, a bronze sword was discovered.[1] Such underground chambers, however, appear to have been used in Scotland as dwellings, or at least as places of concealment, down to the time of the Romans; for a weem described by Lord Rosehill[2] was constructed partly of stones "showing the diagonal and diamond markings peculiar to Roman workmanship." The so-called Picts' houses, which are so common in the north of Scotland, are but slightly, and often not at all, sunk beneath the surface, though, being covered with earth, they are scarcely distinguishable externally from the larger tumuli: but on digging into the green mound, it is found to cover a series of large chambers, built generally with stones of considerable size and converging towards the centre, where an opening appears to have been left for light and ventilation. These differ little from many of the subterranean weems, excepting that they are erected on the natural surface of the soil, and have been buried
