Ancient site · Settlement
Skara Brae
Skara Brae, on the west coast of Orkney's Mainland, is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. A storm in 1850 uncovered stone houses buried in sand dunes.
Each house was a single room joined to the others by covered passages and had built-in stone furniture: a 'dresser', box beds and a central hearth. Farmers lived here from about 3180 to 2500 BCE. No one knows why the village was abandoned: some think sand buried it, others that people left gradually. It is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.
- Dates
- c. 3180–2500 BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 59.05° N, 3.34° W
How we know
No writing existed; radiocarbon dates and excavation tell us when people lived here.
Nearby sites
- Ness of Brodgar c. 3500–2200 BCE
- Hadrian's Wall begun 122 CE; Roman rule ended c. 410 CE
- Star Carr c. 9300–8500 BCE
- Newgrange built c. 3100 BCE; out of use by the Bronze Age
- Tollund Man (find site) died c. 405–384 BCE
- Stonehenge c. 3100–1600 BCE (sarsen circle c. 2600–2400 BCE)