An Islandscape Older Than the Pyramids

Stand on the ridge between the lochs of Harray and Stenness on a grey, windy afternoon and you are standing in one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Europe. The Heart of Neolithic Orkney, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1999, packs a village, two great stone circles, a chambered tomb and dozens of smaller monuments into a few square kilometres of low green farmland. The stones were raised between roughly 3500 and 2500 BC by farming communities who grew barley, kept cattle and sheep, fished the sheltered waters, and built in stone because Orkney had almost no native timber. That shortage is our good fortune: their buildings survived where wooden ones elsewhere have long since rotted away.

The First Farmers: Skara Brae and the Knap of Howar

The Knap of Howar on Papa Westray is the quiet star of Orcadian prehistory: two oblong rooms joined by a doorway, occupied from about 3700 BC and often described as the oldest standing stone house in northern Europe. It sits by the shore, low and sturdy, with cupboards built into the walls and a hearth in the middle of the floor. You reach it by ferry and a short walk, and you will likely have it to yourself.

Skara Brae, on the west coast of Mainland, is the famous one. A storm in 1850 stripped turf and sand from a mound, revealing a compact village of eight houses linked by covered passages. Inside are stone dressers, box beds, hearths and storage tanks set into the floor — furniture in stone, arranged much as it would have been in a timber house further south. The village was occupied for several centuries, and its later inhabitants seem to have abandoned it gradually rather than fleeing disaster.

Tombs for the Ancestors

Orkney's chambered tombs were places of gathering as much as burial. Communities returned to them for generations, placing bones, pottery and prized objects in the dark.

• Maeshowe, near Stenness, is the finest chambered cairn in north-west Europe. Its entrance passage is aligned so that the setting midwinter sun shines straight into the chamber. Twelfth-century Norse visitors left runic graffiti inside, which you can still read by torchlight on a guided tour.
• Cuween Hill, above Finstown, held the remains of around two dozen dogs alongside human bone — a reminder that animals were bound up with family identity.
• Unstan Cairn, on the Stenness loch shore, is a stalled cairn whose distinctive pottery gave its name to a whole Neolithic style.
• The Tomb of the Eagles at Isbister, South Ronaldsay, produced thousands of human bones and the remains of white-tailed eagles.
• Midhowe on Rousay is a stalled cairn some 23 metres long, divided into twelve compartments and protected by a modern hangar.

Standing Stones and Circles

The Stones of Stenness form a tight, tall circle about 12 metres across, with the great Watch Stone standing nearby. A short walk along the neck of land brings you to the Ring of Brodgar, 104 metres in diameter and once perhaps sixty stones strong, set inside a ditch cut from solid bedrock. Between them lies the Ness of Brodgar, where excavation has uncovered substantial buildings that have changed how archaeologists think about Neolithic Orkney — this was not a scatter of farmsteads but a gathering place of real importance. Walk the ridge at dusk in June and the whole arrangement makes sudden, wordless sense.

Walking the Neolithic Landscape

Most of the key sites sit within a few kilometres of each other, and the ground is gentle. The path between Stenness and Brodgar takes about half an hour at an amble. Elsewhere, try the cliff walk at Yesnaby, the tidal causeway to the Brough of Birsay — check tide times before you cross — and the coast path north from Stromness. On Rousay, ferry over and walk to Midhowe and the broch beside it.

• Wear boots and carry waterproofs; the weather turns quickly and there is very little shelter.
• Winter daylight can be as short as six hours around the solstice, so plan short days.
• Maeshowe visits are guided and numbers are limited — book ahead, especially between May and September.
• Ticks lurk in long grass and bracken in summer; midges are far less of a nuisance than on the west coast of Scotland, thanks to the wind.
• Park in passing places, close every gate, and never climb on the stones.

Bannocks, Fiddles and Island Time

Orkney's living culture sits comfortably alongside its ancient one. Look for beremeal bannocks, oatcakes, island cheese, beef, crab and lobster, and a growing number of small distilleries and breweries. In the evenings there is often a fiddle or accordion session in a hotel bar or kirk hall, and the Orcadian dialect is full of good words — peedie for small, kye for cattle. Take your time, talk to people, and let the islands set the pace. Five thousand years on, the Neolithic farmers would probably recognise the rhythm of life here: cattle, barley, boats and long views across dark water.