Skara Brae Prehistoric Village
Skara Brae is the best preserved Neolithic village in northern Europe, a collection of close knit dwellings that predate the ancient pyramids at Giza and a community that flourished before construction at Stonehenge began, it dates back some 5000 years.
For millennia this Neolithic village lay hidden until in 1850 mother nature chose to let loose her secret when violent storms on the high sand dunes of Skara Brae in the Bay of Skail ripped up the grass revealing this famous World Heritage site.
This collection of stone houses would have been almost entirely underground, covered over and weatherproofed with ‘midden’, decomposed refuse. Narrow and low passages helped insulate settlements from biting winds and harsh winters. The floor area of the houses is around 3.6 square metres and spectacularly even the stone furniture has survived allowing a unique insight into life in the so distant past. Box beds to keep in body heat, stone boxes to store water and livebait, a stone hearth and even a stone dresser taking pride and place in the centre of the households.
Viewing the site is largely done from above rather than within the village to maintain its preservation but the visitor centre has an excellent, if slightly taller, reproduction of one of the Skara Brae houses that you can enter and walk around, making the site all the more impressive.
