Heart of Neolithic Orkney - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Hey everyone, I'm Joel on the Road, and today my UNESCO World Heritage Journey is at the heart of Neolithic Orkney in Scotland. The Orkneys are a group of islands just to the north of Scotland, and they've been inhabited for about 8,000 years. There's a whole lot of ancient, ancient history here, because it's been variously occupied by Picts, and Celts, and Vikings, and Romans, and later the Scots of course. There's just so much to see here, and I'm really keen to check it out. This is the Neolithic village of Skara Brae, and it was occupied for about 1,000 years, starting 5,500 years ago. Now it's really well preserved because it's been buried under the sand here until 1850, when a massive storm blew in from the North Sea and uncovered it. There's about 8, 10 houses here, and a workshop, so it's really cool to see how people lived that long ago. It's just fascinating to see these houses, because although they're so ancient, they're just so modern as well. There's storage space built into the walls, and they've got a stone dresser to display things, and keep valuables, and put food on. There's even beds built into the side of the houses, and of course turf roofs to keep warm. This is the Ring of Brodgar, and it dates from around 2,500 to 2,000 BC. There's 60 standing stones, or there was, there's only 27 of them left. A lot of them have fallen over in the wind. Now, it's about 100 metres in diameter, making it the third largest stone circle in the United Kingdom. Now, one interesting thing about this place is that the 60 stones are all slightly different. They were quarried in different locations, and they have different make-ups, so they were all brought here from very different places, but for what purpose, we don't know. No human remains have been found here so far, so it's not really a burial place. The current best guess is that it might be some sort of war memorial, perhaps, or even something to do with astronomy, maybe. But that's it from me. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm Joel on the Road, and I'll see you at the next World Heritage Site.