The best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Europe isn’t in a French cave or an Italian hillside; it’s Skara Brae on Orkney, far beyond the north of Scotland.
In 1850, a great storm swept across Orkney, tearing a layer of soil and sand off a site beside the Bay of Skaill and revealing the remains of a Stone Age village. Upon excavation, it was found to be the most complete in Northern Europe.
The first houses were built about 5,000 years ago, which makes them older than…
