The greatest concentration of neolithic monuments in Europe — Skara Brae village older than the pyramids, the Ring of Brodgar stone circle, the Maeshowe passage tomb, and a Norse Viking heritage that never quite became British
Orkney is an archipelago of 70 islands (20 inhabited) 16km off the northernmost tip of the Scottish mainland, separated from Caithness by the Pentland Firth (the most dangerous stretch of tidal water in the British Isles, where Atlantic and North Sea currents collide in standing waves). The 17 UNESCO World Heritage listed monuments of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney (inscribed 1999) include some of the oldest, best-preserved, and most significant prehistoric monuments in Europe: Skara Brae (a neolithic village of 8 stone houses, buried and preserved by sand dunes for 4,000 years, occupied 3180-…
Orkney has been continuously inhabited since at least 9500 BCE (the earliest archaeological evidence), with the Neolithic culture that built Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar representing the peak of prehistoric civilization in northern Europe. The island was settled by Norse Vikings from the 9th century CE (the Orcadian Norse dialect, Norn, was spoken until the 18th century) and formally transferred from Norway to Scotland only in 1468 (as a pledge against the dowry of Princess Margaret of Denmark, who married the Scottish king James III — the pledge was never redeemed). Orkney remained cul…