Skara Brae Prehistoric Village

Skara Brae (10mi/16.3km north of Stromness) is by far the most important prehistoric site on the Orkneys. It appears to have been inhabited without interruption between 3100 and 2500 B.C. The people farmed the land and bred animals from huts constructed of flat stones and slabs which were then covered with earth. The most remarkable thing about Skara Brae is that some of the Stone Age interior furnishings have survived such as hearths, bed boxes made from stone slabs (filled with straw), a similar stone structure rather like a cupboard and the occasional niche with a drainage channel, probably a toilet. Two buildings from the first phase remain, but the rest of the houses date from the second phase. These were bigger and, unlike the earlier dwellings, the bed box was not built into the wall but integrated into the living space. The houses at Skara Brae were well preserved by a thick layer of sand until 1850 when a fierce storm exposed the ancient site. It is thought that the Stone Age community were wiped out by some natural catastrophe that laid waste their village. The skeleton of a boy and an old man have been found. The main finds are displayed in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.

This site was first excavated by V. Gordon Childe, one of the founding fathers of modern archaeology.