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There are the remains of Stone Age life dotted all over Britain and Ireland. |
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But nowhere as abundantly as Orkney, |
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with its mounds, |
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graves and above all its great circles of standing stones like here at Brodgar, |
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vast, imposing and utterly unknowable. |
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But Orkney boasts another Neolithic site, |
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that is, in its way, |
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even more impressive than Brodgar, |
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the last thing you would expect from the Stone Age, |
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a shockingly familiar glimpse of ancient domestic life. |
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Perched on the western coast of Orkney's main island, |
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a village called Skara Brae. |
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Here, beneath an area no bigger than the 18th grade of a golf course |
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lies Europe's most complete Neolithic community, |
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miraculously preserved for 5,000 years |
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under a blanket of sand and grass |
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until uncovered in 1850 by a ferocious sea storm. |
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This is a recognisable village, |
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neatly fitted into its landscape between the pasture and sea, |
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intimate, domestic and self-sufficient. |
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And although they were technically still in the Stone Age in the Neolithic period, |
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these dwellings are not huts, |
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they're true houses, |
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built from the sandstone slabs that lie all around the island |
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which gave stout protection to the villagers here at Skara Brae, |
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from their biting Orcadian winds. |
