Skara Brae: Orkney’s Neolithic Heart

→ Subscribe for new videos two times per week.

This video is #sponsored by Dollar Shave Club.

Our sister channels:

Credits:
Host - Simon Whistler
Author - Morris M.
Producer - Jennifer Da Silva
Executive Producer - Shell Harris

Source/Further reading:

[johngrantham]

I visited Skara brae on a bright, cold, winters day. Being the only two visitors, the guide allowed my niece and I to wander around the dwellings and opened a cover to explain the sewage system. Each house did, indeed, have an indoor toilet, linked by a stone lined underfloor culvert system. A stream or spring fed water through the culvert providing a constant 'flush'.

[resileaf]

Damn straight that learning about the small stuff in history is just as inspiring as learning about the important places and monuments. Monuments make us dream. Villages like Skara Brae tell us what life really was like.

[ignitionfrn]

1:45 - Chapter 1 - The ancient revolution
5:30 - Chapter 2 - Into the past
8:40 - Mid roll ads
10:10 - Chapter 3 - Ancient life, ancient death
13:10 - Chapter 4 - Before the pyramides
16:35 - Chapter 5 - The end of days
19:45 - Chapter 6 - Rediscovery

[richardiv]

When I went to Skara Brae the guide told us that what remains might be a fraction of the original settlement, erosion from the sea having taken the rest. The guide also mentioned a possible reason for the settlements abandonment also being erosion, with the sea breaching the settlements water supply.

[tomcas]

I live 20 minutes away on the island, and its amazing.

[noobie]

My family is from the Island of Sanday in Orkney, it's a beautiful place. Sometimes fierce winter storms erode the banks and reveal mysterious stone age ruins, there was also a Viking boat burial discovered at the end of the last century.
Excellent video as usual Simon.

[gibblesglobe]

I went there several years ago. Orkney is a gorgeous place. Feels like every other field has a barrow or a standing stone in it.

[bruns.like.spoons]

The neolithic ruins of Malta would be a good topic, Hagar Qim was around 3600BC or something like that. Lots of unique stuff about Malta...

[rlinwa]

Skara Brae remains one of my favorite places. I have been fortunate to travel widely in Europe and I seek out the really old places. I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State where things are considered historic if they are 100 years old, so something as ancient as Skara Brae is particularly stunning to me. Time your visit to the morning before the first tour buses arrive and you can get a feeling of what the place may have been like 5000 years ago. It is quiet and your imagination can run freely. It was serendipity that the village was not discovered until the 1800s, as the Vikings roamed freely through the Orkneys and found most of the other neolithic sites, leaving graffiti and carrying off anything of value. They did not find Skara Brae.

[Andrea-sgqp]

I visited there in 2008 and to this day Orkney is still one of my favourite places ever. It genuinely feels magical, the feeling of awe I got looking at Skara Brae and other nearby sites was like nothing else. Loved the video, it brought back great memories, I hope I can make it back one day.

[GaryR]

Earth-sheltered design is always warmer and cozier than shelter built above grade. These were some advanced builders.

[feartheturnip]

Went to Orkney on a day trip, such an interesting place, so many neolithic places, there's the Churchill barriers, you can see scuttled ships from WW1 & 2, a gorgeous tiny Italian chapel made by POWs. theres one tiny clump of trees they call the wood. I went 2019 on the last day the ferry went from John O'Groats to the island. it was mid 20s C - loved it.

[maddog]

Im scottish and ive acctully been too that location. I really thank you for showing some of are old monuments.

[neilmackay]

I recall a strange feeling of connection looking at amazingly domestic interiors of skara brae. The beds the dresser the fire pit. The comfyness struck me more than anything. Very human.
I liked that more than the Great Ring at brodgar. Though it was blowing horizontal rain the day I was their and that may have tinged my view. Midsummer day 8 degrees.
Orkney has to have the highest sights to see ratio in a small(ish) area than just about anywhere. Not only the ancient stuff there's the Italian chapel (literally made from trash), scapa flow, all the Viking stuff, the highland park distillery and so on. You can barely throw a stick without hitting some interesting thing. Though that's frowned on.

[saltyndveteran]

As an American archaeologist I loved 😍 this video! Great job my Boy with the Blaze!

[LyleFrancisDelp]

Wife and I visited Orkney last year, and of course, saw Skara Brae. Really one of my favorite parts of our Scotland vacay.

[SarahBent]

Exciting to see a place I've visited. (Sad that the graffiti at one of the tombs wasn't mentioned - Vikings wrote the equivalent of "Leif and Erik did Helga here". Some things never change.

[norichannel]

I am planning to visit Orkney this summer making my one decade dream to a reality! I watched this video for a preparation of the trip and it made me even more excited about the visit! Thank you so much for the informative explanation on!

[franl]

Oh, I loved this! I've long been fascinated by Orkney, and I learned a lot today. Thanks for not giving it the plural, which I've read they hate It being referred to as "the Orkneys".
And thanks for that attempt to put the timespan into context - I say "attempt" because most minds would boggle at just how long it's been.
It's only "remote" from our modern perspective, London-based, or south-of-England based - it's closer to Norway than it is to London.
Please do more of this kind of vid

[Superuser]

One of your best videos, shame more people haven't watched it.