Skara Brae

Skara Brae, Orkney

Skara Brae is older than Stonehenge. Older than the Egyptian pyramids. This stone-built Neolithic village on Orkney’s west coast was occupied from around 3100 BCE to 2500 BCE and was concealed under a sand dune until a severe storm revealed it in 1850. A second storm in 1925 prompted the first serious excavation and led to the protective seawall visible today.

Standing at the iron railings overlooking the excavated houses, you can look directly into 5,000-year-old interiors: stone beds, stone dressers, central hearths, and connecting passages between dwellings. The domestic detail is what makes it startling. These are not ceremonial structures. People slept and cooked here. The stone dresser facing the door in the main dwelling was almost certainly a display surface for valued objects, which means someone was arranging things to impress visitors 5,000 years ago.

Getting There

Skara Brae sits on the west coast of Mainland Orkney, about 8 kilometres north of Stromness. By car from Kirkwall it’s about 30 kilometres; from Stromness, 8 kilometres. A limited summer bus service runs from Kirkwall but a car gives you the flexibility to combine the site with the Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe in a single day. The site is operated by Historic Environment Scotland; opening hours run from April to September daily (9:30am-5:30pm) with reduced hours October through March. Check the HES website before visiting.

The Experience

Spend 20-30 minutes in the visitor centre’s exhibition covering daily life of the Neolithic Orcadians, plus a replica house you can enter and touch. Then walk to the main site. The path along the Bay of Skaill adds atmosphere; the light in Orkney on a clear day is remarkable, and the site faces west, making late afternoon visits particularly good.

You cannot enter the excavated houses themselves; you look down into them from the path around the perimeter. The experience is genuinely affecting. The stone furniture inside the houses, preserved by the same dune that concealed them for millennia, gives a specificity that more abstract prehistoric sites lack.

The Orkney Neolithic Circuit

Orkney’s Neolithic monuments are within easy reach of each other, which is the island’s main strength as a destination.

Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle of 60 original stones (27 still standing) from around 2500 BCE, sits on a narrow peninsula between two lochs. More austere than Stonehenge and, without the managed crowds and car parks, more powerful.

Maeshowe is a chambered tomb from around 2800 BCE aligned to the winter solstice sunset. The interior walls are covered in Viking rune graffiti from the 12th century, when Norse raiders broke in and sheltered inside, leaving inscriptions including accounts of their exploits and jokes. The meeting of 5,000-year-old architecture and medieval graffiti is the best single detail in Orkney. Visits are by guided tour only; book ahead.

Stones of Stenness, between Brodgar and Maeshowe, are four remaining standing stones from an original circle, erected around 3100 BCE. Often overlooked because Brodgar is more complete, but the individual stones are taller.

Italian Chapel, on Lamb Holm causeway south of Kirkwall, is a different kind of monument: built by Italian prisoners of war from two Nissen huts, decorated with plasterwork and hand-painted murals to create the illusion of a proper Italian chapel. One of the stranger things in Scotland and genuinely moving.

Eating and Staying

Kirkwall is the main base with the widest accommodation choice. The Kirkwall Hotel is central and comfortable; Westfield House is a well-regarded Victorian B&B.

If you want to stay near Skara Brae, Stromness has smaller guesthouses and a good independent coffee shop culture for a town of 2,000 people.

The Orkney Brewery in Quoyloo, close to Skara Brae, serves reliable pub food and notably good beer including the Dark Island and Skull Splitter ales. Worth planning a stop.

Getting to Orkney

NorthLink Ferries run from Scrabster (near Thurso) to Stromness in 90 minutes; from Aberdeen to Kirkwall in 6 hours (overnight crossings available). Flights from Edinburgh, Inverness, and Aberdeen take under an hour. The ferry is the more atmospheric arrival.