The History Of The Yurt
A yurt is a traditional portable house designed to fit the nomadic lifestyles of several groups of farmers in Central Asia, most notably Mongolia. The structures are round, with a wooden door and stove for those home comforts. The yurt (which is a Turkish word), called a ger in Mongolian languages, can be constructed in around 2 hours and provides a single room with enough space for a family to cook, eat and live. The structures are self-supporting, usually with the weighty covering keeping the structure strong and taut even against strong winds and snow. Some larger yurts have central columns which support the roof crown.
The wall of a yurt is a framework which is latticed and can therefore be easily folded up for transportation. The roof is made either with long poles or a combination of long poles and a central crown which supports the poles. The frame is held in place with ropes carefully placed and held taut to provide the best structural integrity possible. To the untrained eye it may seem that any of the roof poles could go anywhere, but they are all slightly different and shaped to work in an exact location. Several different coverings are used depending on the time of year, with thinner summer covers providing adequate ventilation, while much thicker wool felt is used in the winter to provide insulation.
The first recorded use of a yurt as a dwelling was by Herodotus, the Greek historian. He described the Scythians, a horse-riding nomadic people from the Black Sea region, living in yurts in around 450BC. It is likely that they were used for many centuries before that as they are easy to build and require few tools to construct. They can also be covered with animal skins, and considering animal skin and wooden dwellings are likely to have been the first type of man-made shelter used by early humans it is not a stretch to see how the yurt has evolved from that.
Yurts are still used today as permanent or seasonal dwellings on the steppes of Mongolia and throughout Central Asia, but their popularity has risen in the West too. Although many of the yurts we see in the West are recognisable as such, very few are actually designed to be dismantled and moved around – most are used for glamping although there are some notable exceptions, such as mobile cinemas in yurts and those used as travelling art exhibition venues. These yurts are usually handmade and faithful to the original design. In North America modern materials are often used to build yurts that can be used for camping and even as educational centres.
Spending the night in a yurt, especially one designed for glamping with a skylight in the roof, is a magical experience and incredibly interesting for anyone with even a passing interest in woodcrafts, traditional crafts and wilderness living. Their insulation means that even in the winter they can be a cosy, comfortable environment for glamping, especially if there is a log burner fitted. It can be a little strange at first, because we’re so used to living in spaces that have corners, so you have to work out where you’re going to put your shoes!
Many glamping sites in the UK offer yurts alongside other quirky accommodation, so you will find a suitable yurt for glamping in most areas. There are even some yurt glamping sites that have joined several yurt structures together, to create a family friendly yurt which affords a little more privacy than the traditional open plan Mongolian ger.
