Skara brae was believed to have been destroyed by a sand storm in 1850 a huge storm hit the island which blew away the sand and allowed a little bit of the village to be seen.
Roofs at skara brae.
Wood has always been at a premium in orkney but driftwood from the carolinas or the ribs of beached whales would have provided a suitable framework to.
Brae describes a hill.
The amazing artefacts discovered at this incredible site give us an insight into what life was like in britain during that time.
After the site was abandoned it was buried beneath the sand which preserved the houses up to the full height of their walls.
Because the houses were built into the midden from the outside the village would have appeared as a low round mound broken only by the surface of each house s roof.
No trace of the roofs survives.
Skara brae house roofs.
P ossibly the oldest and longest used structure in skara brae goes by the name of house seven.
Skara brae case study.
With a total floor area of 36 square metres a skara brae house was actually quite spacious.
Skara brae is one of the best preserved neolithic settlements anywhere in western europe which makes it a super special find for archeologists.
What were the houses like inside.
The meaning of the skara skerra part of the name is unknown.
The midden served as a great.
The sandwick folklorist george marwick mentions the mound being used as a meed by local fishermen.
The site was originally known in orkney as a mound called skerrabra this has been corrupted over the years to skara brae.
Rhepanol hg was chosen to create a new watertight garden roof that blends in aesthetically and could be left undisturbed for up to 50 years.
The bay of skaill did not exist at the time and skara brae was located in the middle of low grassland which ran out over the dunes to the ancient shoreline a few hundred metres away.
Before that in 1857 ce the village was believed to have been covered by a sand storm.
Houses at skara brae were made of stacked stone slabs built into midden mounds made of waste material like animal bones and bits of rubbish.
What and where is skara brae.
This structure the best preserved on the site was found to be standing on natural sand while the other houses in the settlement were built on top of the remains of previous structures.
Why would they do this.