They weren't always close to the shore.

When you stand there today, you might get the impression that they were constructed so

close to the water on purpose, but time has a way of changing things.

When they were first built, they stood much farther inland, but rising water levels

and erosion have played a magic trick of sorts.

Located at Orkney, on the tiny island of Papawestry, the site is known as the Napa of

Hauer.

It's a pair of structures made of stacked flat stones and rectangular doorways, all

embedded in grassy mountains.

The roofs might be open to the sky today, but evidence of post holes suggests that they

once had proper tops, and inside large thin pieces of slates have been used to divide

the space into smaller rooms.

Some believe the name Hauer comes from the Old Norse word for burial mounds, and if

you look at them and made that assumption, I can't blame you, but that's not what they

were.

These amazing structures were something very familiar to all of us.

Homes

In their ancient too, they date from around 3500 BC, which means they are early neolithic

and even older than the more famous Scarab-Raysite elsewhere in Orkney.

They're older than Stonehenge, older even than the Great Pyramid, and they make something

very clear.

Wherever humans go, if we can't find a home waiting for us, we make one.

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