SKAILL BACK
Skara Brae, the best-preserved Neolithic village in northern Europe, is set within a magnificently elemental location. To the west, relentless Atlantic Ocean waves muscle up against the modern-day defences that provide shelter between the sea and the wind-battered ensemble of 5,000-year-old houses. The serrated, undulating liminal edges of Orkney pull away to the north and south, less a coastline, more an elemental jawline.
Glowering over Skara Brae to the east stands Skaill House, home for the past 400 years to a magnificently larger-than-life bishop, powerful lairds and to this day said to be thoroughly haunted.
Entrance to the house is included in your ticket to Skara Brae, yet, while the latter is indisputably the headline act, surprisingly few take up the option.
Don’t make that mistake: instead, step through Skaill’s formidable front door, still protected by the original medieval drawbar, a
