A Village Revealed by the Wind
When a violent storm tore across Orkney in 1850 and stripped soil from a mound above the Bay of Skaill, villagers saw something that had been hidden for thousands of years. The storm exposed stone walls, hearths and passages that belonged to one of the most complete Neolithic settlements in Europe. What they found was older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. It was Skara Brae.
Life Inside the Stone Houses
Skara Brae consisted of ten stone homes built partly below ground in mounds of midden that insulated the rooms from the winter cold. The settlement was occupied from about 3180 BC until roughly 2500 BC. Each home had a stone hearth, built in furniture and cupboards.
Every house had a low entrance and a stone door that could be closed with a bar of bone. The residents used grooved ware pottery and kept waterproof stone boxes sealed with clay. A primitive sewer system ran beneath the homes. Each house contained a drain and a small chamber that likely functioned as a toilet. Fish bones and shells show that seafood was an important part of the diet. Seed grains preserved in midden layers show that barley was also grown.
Excavation and Rediscovery
After four houses were uncovered in the first amateur excavation by William Graham Watt, work stopped in 1868. The site lay quiet until 1913, when it was raided by treasure hunters. In 1924 another storm damaged part of the village and prompted a formal excavation.
Professor Vere Childe began work in 1927 and uncovered the best preserved Neolithic village in northern Europe. In 2019 photographs from the excavation were reexamined and revealed that four women had worked with Childe as students. They were later identified as Margaret Simpson, Margaret Mitchell, Mary Kennedy and Margaret Cole.
Objects and Evidence of Daily Work
Skara Brae produced carved stone balls, polished haematite nodules, grooved ware and stone tools including the Skaill knife. Some pottery jars held traces of an alcoholic drink made from oats and barley mixed with plant additives.
The site yielded the oldest known European remains of the human flea. In 1972 waterlogged layers revealed rare Neolithic rope made of heather and a preserved wooden handle. In 2016 a carved whalebone figurine known as the Skara Brae Buddo was found in a museum box.
Abandonment and Modern Risk
Radiocarbon studies show that the village was lived in for about six hundred years. By around 2500 BC the climate had become colder and wetter.
The site was later buried by sand and left empty. Today Skara Brae is part of The Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is protected by Historic Environment Scotland and partners. Rising seas and stronger storms now place the site at serious risk of erosion.
A violent storm ripped open an Orkney mound in 1850 and revealed stone rooms that no one knew existed.
Inside lay a Neolithic village older than Stonehenge and the pyramids with homes so complete it looked as if the people had stepped out only moments before…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/lINcWlifyT
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) November 15, 2025