Skara Brae

Skara Brae is a Neolithic settlement on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island of Orkney in Scotland, occupied roughly between 3180 and 2500 BC and rediscovered in 1850 after a severe storm stripped away the grass-covered mound that had concealed it for millennia. Its eight surviving stone houses, linked by covered stone passageways and built directly into a midden mound for insulation, preserve stone furniture, including box beds, dressers and storage cells, carved from slabs of local flagstone, giving an unusually complete picture of everyday Neolithic domestic life rarely preserved elsewhere in Europe. The settlement predates both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza, and its state of preservation, sometimes called the Pompeii of Scotland, results from the site having been buried and sealed by sand for thousands of years. Skara Brae forms part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1999, together with the nearby monuments of the Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe.