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The Dartmoor longhouse is a type of traditional home, found on the high ground of Dartmoor, in the south west of the United Kingdom. They were constructed from local granite throughout the mediaeval period, and many are still inhabited today, while others were converted as farm buildings.The building usually consisted of a long granite structure, with a central entrance, usually protected by a porch. There were two main rooms on the ground floor - one to the left of the central passageway and the other to the right. One of these was occupied by human inhabitants (usually at the higher end of the building), and the other by their animals - especially during the cold winter months. The animal quarters were called the ‘shippen’ - a word still used by many locals to describe a farm building used for livestock.
This simple floorplan is clearly visible at the abandoned mediaeval village at Hound Tor, which was inhabited from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Excavations during the 1960s revealed four longhouses - many featuring a central drainage channel - and several smaller houses and barns.
The earliest longhouses were without fireplaces - the smoke from a central fire would simply have filtered through the thatched roof. Windows were very small, or non-existent, so the interior would have been dark. Large granite fireplaces and chimneys were added in later centuries, and can be found in many of the surviving Dartmoor longhouses today.
