Skara Brae is one of the main tourist attractions on Orkney and it's easy to see why. The name Skara Brae comes from the original Skerrabra which was used to name the mound the village was found in. No one knows the original name of course. What is known is that this preserved prehistoric village was discovered when a violent storm in 1850 dislodged the sand dunes that were covering the site. It is a puzzle why the village was abandoned but it could be because of the sand dunes that gradually encroached on it and kept the site hidden for those thousands of years or they just could have moved on. Nobody knows! Its well preserved condition is helped by the fact that it is on a sparsely populated island as well. Both Orkney and Shetland boast fabulous neolithic sites that elsewhere probably would have been destroyed centuries ago. Skara Brae was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1999.
It is estimated that this village was occupied from about 3100 BC to about 2600 BC. Yes, it predates the pyramids and Stonehenge.
Okay enough history, let's go have a look!!!
You can see Skara Brae's close proximity to the sea however it was originally beside a freshwater loch. A lot of things change in five thousand years!
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