Skara Brae Prehistoric Village

Huge amount of archaeological interest. Well preserved and organised by Historic Scotland.. Well worth the effort. An excellent introductory film and thoughtful walk displays. You need to walk past the mock up of one of the village houses but do look as it’s really helpful to set the scene. A longish walk then to the site. Well preserved and signed. Worth the effort

Fantastic historical site! Stone age, oldest habitat for Neolithic man settlement in Europe. So much to explain on this site. If you are visiting the Oakney islands you must come over.

I understand the historical aspect of this and its significance so I would encourage you to go see it. However it's really not that impressive in person so best to adjust your expectations. In the price of the ticket you'll also get access to Skaill House and we found that more interesting, so make sure you visit that as well. We were very surprised however by the huge number of bunnies in the fields nearby - there must've been hundreds of them, so make sure to look for them while you're there.

Utterly crap management by Historic Scotland. Paid for audio tour, but they don't give you a device to listen through like literally anywhere else would, instead they expect you to download their app and download the enormous audio tour onto your own phone and listen to it through your device. They failed to send us a confirmation email so we had no idea about any of this, and obviously haven't brought headphones with us. Even the reception desk staff told us they have "endless issues" with this awful audio guide system. All they could suggest is that we buy a cup of coffee and wait while our phones struggle to download everything (45 minutes so far). We are waiting in the coffee queue now and it isnt even moving. Oh and the cafe is cash only, just to add to the inconvenience. Customers are having to offer to pay for each other's drinks. Again, even the staff are suffering, taking coins from the tip jar to make up the balance when someone is short of 30p. It's atrocious. Whole place is a complete shambles. Haven't even seen the neolithic settlement yet but I'm giving 1 star already because it is the worst run attraction I have ever been to. You might think with the number of visitors they get that they'd have come up with an efficient system by now, but they haven't. Historic Scotland are useless and incompetent. Gave up on downloading the audio tour in the end (they've promised us a refund, apparently it should be free anyway, so not clear why we were made to pay for it in the first place). Summoned all the politeness we could for the staff and went on to have a look at Scara Brae - utter disappointment; no access to the actual ruins, you can only look at them from a walkway, BUT you can PAY MORE for an evening tour. As this was the only way we would actually get to properly see the village and we're unlikely to ever come back to Orkney given the distance travelled, we paid and went on the evening tour as well. Evening tour was better, as you actually get to walk among and touch the houses (finally), although you STILL don't get to see inside house 7 (the best preserved) it's unclear who they are trying to preserve it for of no one ever gets to see it anyway. To anyone visiting - don't bother with the audio tour, don't bother visiting in the day time with the coach loads of foreign tourists, just book the evening tour.

Beautiful at all times of year. Reconstruction of house 7 helps illustrate what it might have looked like when people lived here. Interesting exhibition and film. Amazing so much is left of this 5000 year old village. Skaill beach is beautiful too.

A really great visit and is a bucket list place for me. It was well staffed with knowledgeable staff and has a small but informative museum at the main entrance. The site is well kept and has amazing views of the ocean. The cafe however is only open in the summer months.

The place is very nice to visit but they decided to close the access to the settlement and you can see it only from outside, following a pathway around it. They recreated the main house in the visitor center's garden, but it is not the same thing obviously.

Long on my bucket list and definitely worth the wait. This neolithic village has been beautifully excavated and gives us such an insight into how the people living here could have lived

Great place to visit in Orkney if you are interested in these Neolithic archeological sites. Make sure you bundle up as this is Scotland and this is right off the water. There's a great little cafe there for coffee or lunch during your visit. You can also visit the Skaill House for some more interesting history during your visit.

We visited Skara Brae today, and were so impressed! This site is amazing...so beautifully preserved and presented, with lots of information available on the plaques and signs. We had a brief conversation with an employee at on the site (Dawn) and got more information in 10 minutes than I discovered in 3 separate guidebooks prior to our visit. Dawn was a fount of knowledge and obviously loves her job...she explained and answered questions, and made our visit to Skara Brae one of our favorite experiences of our trip, and we are so grateful she was working today! We visited the gift shop on our way out, and I bought a knitted headband (to keep my ears warm on our next stop), and it is beautiful and was very reasonably priced. There are a variety of unique informational books for sale in the gift shop, and it is well worth a stop on the way in or out. We enjoyed every minute of our visit today, and highly recommend making the time to stop here.

We arrived at Orkney Island on a nice sunny but cool day. Our first stop is the historic Skara Brae. It is an old Neolithic settlement located on the Bay of Skaill. It was occupied around 3,000 BC. It is a very popular tourist place so there are a lot of people wandering around so it is hard to get some good pictures. You cannot go down into the preserved areas to keep it from being destroyed. There are about 8 houses to view. I enjoyed how they have stones along the way that gives a timeline from current period to when Skara Brae was built. The view over the Bay is beautiful and you can walk along the beach after the tour. There is a Cafe in the visitor center with some great pastries and drinks. There is also a tour of the manor house of the family who discovered the ruins if you want to add to your tour.

Skara Brae. One of the oldest settlements in all of Europe. The houses are sunk into the ground, and this goes back, way back 5000 years. The Orkney Islands require a true passion for Scotland, as you must travel beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow. This area is like going to the Northwest Territories in Canada. Well worth the trek! The people that lived here are said to be farmers--raising cattle and sheep. My parents have a farm in rural Alberta, and this was just a stunning discovery on our trip around Scotland. Don't forget to see the nearby Ring of Brodgar w/ the standing stones. There is a feeling that words can't quite capture. A timelessness. The wind is fierce. The stones are still. And you imagine what ancient people lived here, what their lives might have been like. Don't forget to have a warm soup in the Cafe! There is much to see here, take your time walking through the various homes and take in that majestic ocean!

Whaaaaa.....? There's not a single review for Skara Brae? UNESCO World Heritage Site? Europe's "most complete" Neolithic village? Eight homes still relatively intact after over 5,000 years? Older than the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge? Be still my heart. There's something almost mystical about the Orkney Islands, a set of islands clustered off the north coast of Britain in the North Sea: unforgiving ocean winds and cooler temperatures render the islands beautifully barren, windswept, rocky and rugged. Trees can't take root. Clouds snag on pastured boulders. And a total population of 20,000 makes the islands feel even more isolated and remote. But the natural mystery and allure is only augmented by the islands' pivotal role in the history of civilization. Historians date the eight stone homes at Skara Brae, built into middens directly adjacent to the beach at the Bay of Skaill, to 3100 BCE. Its partially subterranean structure meant that -- after the village was abandoned around 2500 BCE -- it managed to be impeccably preserved for thousands of years under layers of sand, dirt and grass. A violent storm in the Bay unearthed the first modern evidence of Skara Brae in 1850. Today the site offers visitors glimpses into these dwellings and buildings, complete with their central hearths, stone beds and storage spaces. Excavations have unearthed prehistoric artifacts including grooved pottery, heather rope, game dice and jewelry, all on display in the excellent visitors center. A fully rebuilt replica of a midden home provides visitors the opportunity to experience what it was like on the inside. Skara Brae is a once-in-a-lifetime place. Put it on your bucket list.

If it's only one place you can visit while in the Orkney Islands, this would be it for me. I loved the walk back thru history (although it was a very western civilization history walk - would have been nice to see a stone placing some Eastern historical context like Indus Valley civilization or Great Wall of China built). But other than that, I enjoyed going thru the replica hut, before going down to the actual site of this prehistoric village. You get fairly close and it is astounding to read about is discovery as well as the sympathetic restoration by an Australian archeologist. The ticket to the Skara Brae village also admits you to to Skaill House, which I would also endorse going and checking out. There's an Aussie connection here as this was the first port Cook landed at on his tour and somehow the owners of this house ended up with his tea set! I also loved the embroidered genealogy chart of the family which can be seen on the stairs - just everything on display here is awesome from the Middle Ages bed to the 1950s clothes of the then lady of the house. On a final note, I also ate Cullen Skink soup in the cafeteria here and it was delicious- would recommend. (Side Note - This is my 300th review!!!)

The Orkney Islands may seem remote (and I suppose they are..) but they will repay abundantly the effort of getting there, if you are interested in fabulous scenery, archaeology, history and wildlife - and don't mind the wind! The Island has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of this astonishing legacy. For many, the jewel in Orkney's archaeological crown - and believe me, there is some astonishing competition here - is the prehistoric village of Skara Brae. Exposed by a storm in 1850, this is the best preserved prehistoric village in northern Europe, bar none. Further excavation in the 1920's revealed more houses, and a proper study was undertaken. The excavated farming settlement dates back 5000 years, and it thought it was inhabited from 3200BC to 2200BC. Within the stone walls of the seven dwellings separated from each other by narrow passages are items of amazingly well preserved neolithic furniture. This includes stone beds, dressers, seats and boxes for provisions, recesses for personal possessions, all set around central hearths. They even built small pools inside the houses to keep fish fresh. The whole ensemble feels like it was inhabited only yesterday, so modern does the stone furniture look. A replica house has been created next to the site and many original artefacts found at Skara Brae (part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site) are displayed in the visitor centre, which has a café. There is also a shop featuring many products created in Orkney. The setting of Skara Brae is magnificent with the sound of seabirds and the sea. Access to Skara Brae is weather dependent, so phone ahead to check access.

This place is way older thatn the pyramids and looks like the builders moved out yesterday. It is well worth a visit even if you are not particulaly intersted in Ancient History. A wonderfully place in an awesome location

I don't have much to add to the previous poster. Just make sure to visit it when on the Orkney Islands.

This site is situated in the west mainland of Orkney. A fascinating site - a real must-see on a trip to Orkney. The visitor centre and audio-visual display are good. There's plenty of activities to try - such as the interactive reconstructing a pot or building a Skara Brae house. Outside there's a replica house which you can go into. Then you walk back in time, past man on the moon, past the pyramids, stonehenge and back to Skara Brae (the timeline walk has stones alongside telling you what date/event you are passing). You can't go inside the village - and one of the houses now has a turf roof to protect it, but you can look down into the rest and try to imagine life in Skara Brae - and wonder why it was abandoned Make sure you take a warm top - it can be pretty windy (and cold) at the Bay of Skaill). Parking, toilets and cafe are all available at the site too.

Well worth a visit even if you are not into history to see where people lived & the view out to sea is beautiful. On a warm day walking on the beach you would actually think you were in a carribean island. There is a small shop & cafe