Skara Brae
Skara Brae's villagers had stone dressers, beds and indoor drains while the pyramids of Giza were still being built. Then a storm in 1850 pulled their houses out of the sand.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- Bay of Skaill, west Mainland, Orkney
- Occupied
- Roughly 3180 BC to 2500 BC
- Discovered
- Uncovered by a great storm in the winter of 1850
- Houses
- Eight surviving dwellings linked by low covered passages
- Excavated
- William Watt of Skaill from 1850; major work by V. Gordon Childe from 1928
- Designation
- Part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, inscribed 1999
- Building material
- Local flagstone, with turf and midden walling for insulation
- Nickname
- The Scottish Pompeii
The storm that stripped a village bare
In the winter of 1850 a ferocious storm tore into the Bay of Skaill on Orkney's west coast. When it passed, the wind had stripped grass from a large mound, revealing the outlines of ancient stone buildings. The local laird, William Watt of Skaill, began digging. He found stone-walled rooms, bones and tools, and the work was soon abandoned, then picked up again in later decades. Another storm in the 1920s threatened the site, and a sea wall was built to protect it. The site was then excavated far more thoroughly under the Australian-born archaeologist V. Gordon Childe, starting in 1928.
A village older than Stonehenge and the pyramids
Skara Brae was first occupied around 3180 BC, which makes it older than the great stone circle at Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza. The people who lived here were Neolithic farmers, raising cattle and sheep, growing barley and wheat, and gathering shellfish and fish from the bay. Early theories guessed at an Iron Age date. Radiocarbon dating later showed the village was far older than Childe had supposed. It was lived in for around 600 years before being abandoned.
Furniture in stone
Orkney has very few trees, but it has an abundance of flagstone that splits naturally into neat slabs. The villagers used it for almost everything. Each house is a single main room with a central hearth. Facing the doorway stands a stone dresser, the first thing you see on entering. Against the walls are box beds, which would have been filled with heather or skins, and small stone-lined tanks set into the floor, probably used for keeping bait or soaking shellfish. There is also a primitive drainage system, with channels running under the village, and what appears to be an early form of toilet in some of the houses. That is remarkable for a settlement more than 5,000 years old.
Snug underground living
The houses were sunk into older rubbish heaps known as middens, a clever bit of Neolithic insulation. The piled-up waste of earlier generations helped hold out the Atlantic gales, and low passages connected the dwellings so people could move between them under cover. Only one structure, usually numbered House 8, stands apart. It has no beds or dresser, and it is thought to have been a workshop, perhaps for making stone tools or other goods.
Myths and mysteries
A popular tale says the village was buried in a sudden catastrophe, which is why it is nicknamed the Scottish Pompeii. The truth is less dramatic. Childe imagined a storm overwhelming the settlers, but later study suggests the village was gradually abandoned over time, and the sand drifted in afterwards. The small objects found here are just as intriguing. Carved stone balls, some with knobs and spirals, turned up across Neolithic Scotland, and nobody knows what they were for. Decorated stonework and grooved ware pottery show the villagers cared about pattern and design as well as practicality. Skara Brae is also part of a wider landscape. The nearby Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness and Maeshowe tomb belong to the same Neolithic world, and together they make up the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.
What to look out for when you're there
Start at the visitor centre, where a full-size replica house lets you step inside and see the dresser, hearth and beds as they would have looked. Then walk the path along the edge of the village, looking down into the roofless rooms from above. Look for the dressers, the box beds, and the stone tanks set into the floor. Notice how close the sea is, and think how dramatically the coastline must have shifted since the villagers farmed here. Skaill House, the old laird's home that gave the bay its name, stands close by and can be visited as well.
Notable people
- William Watt of Skaill
- V. Gordon Childe