Skara Brae

Visited two sites today: the Ness of Brogdar and Skara Brae. Skara Brae is a famous neolithic village, dating from about 3200 BC and occupied till about 2500 BC, which was buried under sand until a severe storm in 1850 blew some of the sand away and  it was revealed. I first vivited Skara Brae in the early 80s and you could just wander through the old structures,  it is now all cordoned off but you can go into a reconstruction of one of the houses.

The Ness of Brogdar was in use about the same time as Skara Brae, but was only discovered in 2003. It has been excavated since and we were lucky to see it, as it is intended to cover it over again later this year. It does not seem to be dwellings, but is believed to be some kind of meeting place for religious ceremonies or banquets. It seems the buildings were not made to last, many are badly constructed and we were told that the stone is so soft that it would deteriorate quickly of exposed to the elements for long ---- it has only survived because it was buried.

Today's blip is one of the buildings in Skara Brae, and the extra is a shot of the interior of the replica reconstruction that you can visit.