Transcript: Dr Julie Gibson VFT 2: The Heart of Neolithic
Orkney
Question 2c: What are the main issues surrounding the management of
Skara Brae and the wider archaeological landscape? (continued)
Whatever you do on the beach is going to alter what happens to each side of it and in front of it. You can’t
build on a beach without having an effect but it’s no doubt that the priority would always have had to have
been to protect the upstanding village of Skara Brae. Having said that, there’s Neolithic archaeology to the
south of it and Iron Age archaeology on top of the Neolithic archaeology and Viking archaeology on top of
that! So the big sandy mound that’s immediately to the south of Skara Brae may have eroded faster than it
would have been eroding anyway because of the sea wall but who knows?
The fact is that it’s eroded significantly in the last 20 or 30 years. It’s gone from a mount with quite a small
section facing the sea to the peak of the mound is now retreating down to a smaller section the whole
time. That’s measureable but that happens in chunks [and] that doesn’t happen just gradually so it’s quite
difficult to actually monitor something that gets taken out in chunks because it’s where it is and, you know,
people do report the last catastrophe and we go along and take photos.
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