Skara Brae

1. Skara Brae

2. The village of Skara Brae – looking out onto the Bay Of Skail. The houses vary from 4-6 metres in width and length. It’s thought that the roofs would have been made from turf and held up by whalebone or timber.

3. The village as it is today. Archaeological digs have shown that there were houses below the present site. It is thought that the village was lived in during 2 main stages. The site that remains today contains 2 houses from the earlier period of settlement

4. There are 10 buildings in the village – some bigger than others. The building on the right in this picture stands on its own and is thought to be a workshop. The other buildings are linked by covered passages which are the ‘streets’ of the village.

5. The walls are made from stone which comes from quarries in the area or the beach. These walls contain shelves for storage.

6. The covered passages which linked the houses at Skara Brae. Why would they have needed covered passages?

7. This picture is taken from inside a house and shows the doorway. The doors were not hinged like doors today. They were simple slabs of stone fixed in the doorway. How do you think they fixed them in position?

8. A birdseye view of the inside of one of the houses. In the middle of each building is a central hearth or fireplace. Fuel was probably animal dung, seaweed, heather and bones

9. This is a stone dresser and is situated facing the door of the house. Some of the dressers have a stone seat in front of them. The dressers would have been used to store things or perhaps to display possessions.

10. Can you see the stone boxes? They were set into the floor and lined with clay to make them watertight. It is thought that they were used to soak limpets for use as fish bait.

11. The people of the village were fishermen and farmers. We know this because animal bones were found which showed they kept cattle and sheep and a few pigs. Lots of fish bones have been found. Barley and wheat grains have been found

13. Tools found at Skara Brae were made mostly from stone – usually flint – and bone. They were used for cutting wood, scraping and sewing skins and various other things.

14. Some of the houses have small compartments with drains underneath them. They may have been used as an indoor toilet. Why would they put a toilet indoors?

15. A bone necklace found in one of the houses. This would have taken a long time to make. Why would it have been left behind? Beads, pendants and pins were found in the village and are evidence that the people who lived here liked to make and wear jewellery ‘Paint pots’ made from stone and shell have also been found. These would have been used to mix paint for body decoration or colouring carvings.

16. These lovely objects have been made with great skill

17. This is a stone bed made from large stone slabs. You can see cupboards set into the wall above the bed where they would have kept personal possessions. The beds were probably lined with heather and animal skins were used as blankets.