House 7 within the village of Skara Brae on the southern shore of Bay of Skaill, Orkney, Scotland.
Skara Brae is an archaeological site with exceptionally well preserved remains that show the stone built furniture and internal structure of ten Neolithic houses and their narrow connecting passageways. Radio Carbon dates show that the village was occupied for around 600 years between 3200 and 2200 BC. There appear to be two main structural phases to the occupation.
House 7 is connected to the south of the main east-west passageway through the village via its own long passage. To the east of it are houses of the earlier phase at Skara Brae and it is possible that House 7 also shows continuity of occupation through the phases on the site. Excavated during 1927-8, House 7 is one of the largest and best preserved of the houses at Skara Brae. It has numerous internal features including a very fine ‘Dresser’ built of stone slabs. Less obvious today is the fact that under the right hand bed as you enter the house were buried the bodies of two women in a decorated stone lined grave.
To protect is fine structural features House 7 roofed immediately after excavation in 1930 but this created environmental problems and the roof was replaced in 2009. The house is not currently open to the public for conservation reasons.
The monument is now managed by Historic Scotland and is a key element of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. The Lidar survey was conducted by Scottish10 and made available by Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation (CDDV).
For more information contact CDDV