Where is Skara Brae?
It lies right against the beach at the Bay of Skaill, west Mainland, OS Ref NY 2321884 on the B9056. It is owned and run by Historic Scotland who charge visitors to visit the site and who conduct guided tours. Some Nostalgia For the mid-20th Century visitor Skara Brae was a place of adventure, particularly for children. A place for scampering around, over and through. It was a place of surprising familiarity, yet a complete mystery. It was a place for play-acting and imagining the lives of other children from 5000 years before. The finds and flimsy information leaflets were housed in a small stone shack. The warden would show you around the site if you asked her; happy to break the tedium of looking after a rarely-visited archaeological site and eager to answer questions from the occasional inquisitive, even well-informed, visitor. Today, Skara Brae is fenced in and buttressed against too many feet and the ravages of coastal erosion. A guided tour is the only way that you will see the
