It's a sod house! This was how people in northern latitudes kept cool during the summer and warm during the winter. Sod is very good insulation.
EDIT: I was thinking of a sod house. Stop upvoting me. I don't deserve it. Barrows are places where sod houses used to be found because barrows were where people were buried. I got mixed up because I'm stupid. Other commenters rightfully called me out. I think I always remembered them being called "barrow houses" because of 1066 and All That joked about people burying themselves in long wheelbarrows (it was a reference to Dark Age Britons and their longhouses and tumuli, which are also called barrows. I only remembered the longhouses part).
Edit 2: Goddammit, I come back 15 minutes later and I've got 300 more upvotes. I was rightfully called out. I was wrong. I was corrected again that this is actually a turf house and not a sod house, which are apparently different. I don't know if you guys are upvoting me out of pity or because you think I'm being humble but stop. I don't deserve it. Let the Nordic scholars and hundreds of Icelandic redditors (seriously, 10% of the population must be on here) point you in the right direction. I'm just a stupid American who likes to read nonfiction. My flair on /r/NoStupidQuestions is "purveyor of useless information" for a reason.
Edit 3: You guys are too kind. 100 more? Btw, I think I found what I was thinking of. I figured I must be crazy mixing up sod house with barrows but then I found this. So barrows are a thing, but they're tombs. So I conflated the whole "structure buried underground" with "domicile" and combined the two in my mind. A barrow-like structure that is also a house. That's how I came up with "barrow house." Yes, I'm retarded. I will plead guilty to Karma Court if need be.
Edit 4: Why am I being gilded multiple times? Okay, I'll try and turn around for the better. Someone else ITT mentioned that a lot of these sod/turf houses were torn down because they were symbols of poverty. So few of these houses remain. Instead of giving gold, how about donate that money to historical preservation in the Nordic countries? Keep these turf houses for more tourists like OP to see. And then you can see the barrows WHICH ARE NOT THE SAME THING on tours highlighting Dark Age European culture. Scandinavian countries are pretty good about this, but sprawl and development are the biggest obstacles to conservation. Look to your own towns and neighborhoods for local history that needs to be preserved. This is true everywhere. I heard about in Japan how priests are tearing down parts of their temples for real estate development and it's heartbreaking how thousands of years of history can die just like that. Check out people like The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Edit 5: Guys, when I said "stop upvoting me", I didn't mean "go through my history and downvote all my comments."
ButtsexEurope on May 7th, 2017 at 21:43 UTC »
It's a sod house! This was how people in northern latitudes kept cool during the summer and warm during the winter. Sod is very good insulation.
EDIT: I was thinking of a sod house. Stop upvoting me. I don't deserve it. Barrows are places where sod houses used to be found because barrows were where people were buried. I got mixed up because I'm stupid. Other commenters rightfully called me out. I think I always remembered them being called "barrow houses" because of 1066 and All That joked about people burying themselves in long wheelbarrows (it was a reference to Dark Age Britons and their longhouses and tumuli, which are also called barrows. I only remembered the longhouses part).
Edit 2: Goddammit, I come back 15 minutes later and I've got 300 more upvotes. I was rightfully called out. I was wrong. I was corrected again that this is actually a turf house and not a sod house, which are apparently different. I don't know if you guys are upvoting me out of pity or because you think I'm being humble but stop. I don't deserve it. Let the Nordic scholars and hundreds of Icelandic redditors (seriously, 10% of the population must be on here) point you in the right direction. I'm just a stupid American who likes to read nonfiction. My flair on /r/NoStupidQuestions is "purveyor of useless information" for a reason.
Edit 3: You guys are too kind. 100 more? Btw, I think I found what I was thinking of. I figured I must be crazy mixing up sod house with barrows but then I found this. So barrows are a thing, but they're tombs. So I conflated the whole "structure buried underground" with "domicile" and combined the two in my mind. A barrow-like structure that is also a house. That's how I came up with "barrow house." Yes, I'm retarded. I will plead guilty to Karma Court if need be.
Edit 4: Why am I being gilded multiple times? Okay, I'll try and turn around for the better. Someone else ITT mentioned that a lot of these sod/turf houses were torn down because they were symbols of poverty. So few of these houses remain. Instead of giving gold, how about donate that money to historical preservation in the Nordic countries? Keep these turf houses for more tourists like OP to see. And then you can see the barrows WHICH ARE NOT THE SAME THING on tours highlighting Dark Age European culture. Scandinavian countries are pretty good about this, but sprawl and development are the biggest obstacles to conservation. Look to your own towns and neighborhoods for local history that needs to be preserved. This is true everywhere. I heard about in Japan how priests are tearing down parts of their temples for real estate development and it's heartbreaking how thousands of years of history can die just like that. Check out people like The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Edit 5: Guys, when I said "stop upvoting me", I didn't mean "go through my history and downvote all my comments."
dick-nipples on May 7th, 2017 at 21:57 UTC »
OP, you're an amazing photographer. This video is unbelievable.
JeffBuckleysGhost on May 8th, 2017 at 00:50 UTC »
Awesome. Always been interested in these. Serious questions though. Is there an increase of insects creeping and crawling in these kinds of houses?