After a quick lunch in the stateroom back at the ship, we headed out for the afternoon excursion of Skara Brae and Skaill House. We drove through Kirkwall on the way and approached our destination from the inland side. I recognized Skaill House from across the loch even though, when I had been there before, we had only been on the ocean side. It is a large, sprawling house — mostly two stories, but with a three story tower. I quickly raised my phone and took a photo.
The tour coach ended up parking just north of the house, not too far from the visitor center. We got off of the coach and immediately headed along the path to Skara Brae. Since it is below the ground, there isn’t much that can be seen until you are right on top of it. Then, what you see is mesmerizing.
This was how regular people lived in this part of the world at least as far back as 3180 to 2500 BC. Skara Brae is on the Bay of Skaill on the largest island in Orkney, known as Mainland. It consists of ten earthen houses, with stone interior walls, clustered together. Some of them have the remains of stone furniture and even sewer systems.
It is the best preserved Neolithic village in Europe. It also happens to be older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids. I am fascinated by Skara Brae both because of its age and the fact that the buildings were the homes of regular people. Not palaces or tombs.
Skara Brae was discovered when a nasty storm hit Scotland in the winter of 1850. The top of the hill containing the houses was ripped off revealing parts of some of them. Excavations began to reveal the rest of them.
The houses were built into mounds of domestic waste known as middens, which created some stability for the mortarless stone walls while also acting as insulation. They are not certain what was burned in the firepits as peat was not readily available as fuel until after Skara Brae had already been abandoned. Possible fuels could have been animal dung, dried seaweed or driftwood. Trees have never been in abundance on Orkney.
Looking at the photos I took, you can see that the furniture includes dressers, storage boxes, cupboards, and even rudimentary beds. The doors to each house were made of stone slabs which used bars made of bone to shut them. Beads and painted pots were left behind in many of the houses, which suggests that the inhabitants may have left in a hurry.
One of the buildings, House 8, is different from the rest. It has no dresser or storage boxes and has been divided into smaller areas. There also appears to be a flue as well as fragments of bone, antler, and stone. It is thought that this house, which also is a stand-alone structure not surrounded by midden, was used to make tools.
House #1 is the most complete. It has a fire pit in the center. A dresser is against the wall bordering the sea. When facing the dresser, the men’s bed is at the left and the women’s bed at the right. You can see storage boxes scattered around and also see some cupboards built into the walls.
It is believed that the people who built Skara Brae primarily raised cattle, sheep and pigs. Evidence shows that barley was cultivated. Fish bones and shells were also found.
Artefacts include lumps of red ochre (indicating the possibility of body painting), and awls, needles, knives, beads, shovels, small bowls, and ivory pins. These items were made of animal, fish, bird, and whalebone, as well as walrus ivory and orca teeth.
Additional excavations in 1972 reached layers that had remained under water and therefore contained items that would have been destroyed if not having been preserved in the water. These included a wooden handle and a piece of rope made from a twisted skein of heather.
On my previous visit to Skara Brae, it had been raining quite heavily there too. This made the paths and grass upon which we needed to walk to be able to look down into the houses rather treacherous.
On this trip, I was able to take my time and thoroughly photograph everything. It was cold since I was near the sea, but it wasn’t raining. I spent a lot of time both in the real Skara Brae and visiting the reproduction of what one of the houses might have looked like when it was inhabited. It actually seemed rather cozy. It would have been interesting to know how many people lived in a house.
Next time – 17th Century Orkney – Skaill House
