About
Skara Brae is one of the most astonishing and moving prehistoric sites in the world — a complete Neolithic village on the Bay of Skaill in Orkney that lay buried and perfectly preserved beneath sand dunes for nearly five thousand years before a great storm exposed it in 1850. What the storm revealed, and what visitors can see today, is a cluster of eight interconnected stone-built houses dating from approximately 3100 to 2500 BC — older than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids, and one of the best-preserved prehistoric settlements anywhere in Europe or beyond.
What makes Skara Brae uniquely remarkable is not merely its age but its extraordinary state of preservation. Because the village was buried rapidly and remained undisturbed for millennia, the stone furniture inside each house survives exactly as the inhabitants left it: stone dressers still stand against the walls opposite the doorways, stone-edged beds line the sides of the rooms, stone hearths occupy the centre of each floor, and stone storage containers are set into the ground. Walking along the viewing walkway above the houses, visitors look down into spaces that still feel entirely inhabited — rooms where people lived, cooked, slept, and stored their possessions five thousand years ago.
The visitor centre provides outstanding interpretation of both the site and the broader context of Neolithic Orkney. Displays include artefacts recovered during excavations — Grooved Ware pottery, carved stone balls, bone tools, antler picks, and pieces of jewellery including necklaces of animal teeth and bone beads — which reveal a sophisticated community with trade connections across Neolithic Britain. A full-scale replica house in the visitor centre allows visitors to step inside and experience the intimate scale and atmosphere of a Skara Brae dwelling.
Skara Brae is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated as part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney alongside the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, and Maeshowe. The adjacent Skaill House — a seventeenth-century mansion — is included in a combined ticket. The wild Atlantic coastal setting, with waves breaking on the Bay of Skaill just metres from the ancient village, adds immeasurably to the experience of visiting one of humanity's oldest surviving communities.
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Highlights
The Neolithic Houses
The eight Neolithic houses at the heart of the site are among the most extraordinary survivals of prehistoric human habitation anywhere in the world. Each roughly square stone-built house — about 40 square metres in size — is connected to its neighbours by covered stone passages, creating an integrated village rather than isolated individual dwellings.
The houses' interiors, viewed from the raised walkway, contain their original stone furniture exactly in the positions where the inhabitants left it, giving a sense of immediacy and human presence that no amount of interpretation alone could achieve.
Stone Furniture
What elevates Skara Brae above almost all other prehistoric sites is the survival of stone furniture inside the houses — dressers, beds, hearths, and storage tanks that would normally have been made of perishable wood and lost forever. The stone dresser in each house, positioned directly opposite the doorway so it was the first thing seen on entering, is thought to have been a place of display for valued possessions.
Stone box beds lined with heather or straw, central stone hearths, and stone storage containers built into the floors complete a domestic picture of astonishing completeness.
Artefact Collection
Excavations at Skara Brae have yielded a remarkable collection of Neolithic artefacts now displayed in the visitor centre. These include Grooved Ware pottery — a distinctive style of decorated ceramic that originated in Orkney and spread across Neolithic Britain — carved stone balls whose purpose remains debated, antler picks used to dig the passages, bone tools and needles, and pieces of jewellery including necklaces of animal teeth and beads.
Together these objects build a picture of a sophisticated community with trade and cultural connections stretching far beyond Orkney.
Replica Neolithic House
The visitor centre contains a superb full-scale replica of a Skara Brae house, faithfully reconstructed to give visitors the experience of actually entering and being inside one of these ancient dwellings. Standing inside the low-ceilinged stone room — with its dresser, beds, hearth, and storage containers — and feeling the intimate human scale of a space designed to keep a family warm and sheltered in Orkney's fierce winters, brings the five-thousand-year-old village alive in a way that looking down from the walkway cannot match.
Essential for all ages.
Collections
Skara Brae: Neolithic Village
The main permanent exhibition traces the story of the Neolithic village from its founding around 3100 BC through its five-hundred-year occupation to its abandonment around 2500 BC. Features artefact displays, the story of the village's discovery, and Neolithic Orkney in context.
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
Interpretation placing Skara Brae within the wider UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape, exploring connections to the Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness, and Maeshowe.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.