Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae

Neolithic Orkney contained a dense landscape of farms, tombs, stone circles and settlements. Skara Brae preserves interconnected stone houses with hearths, cupboards, beds and covered passages, offering unusual evidence for domestic life.

The community lived through farming, fishing, craft and exchange in a demanding island environment. Windblown sand helped preserve the settlement after it was abandoned, though the causes and pace of abandonment remain debated.

Shifting Sands draws on Skara Brae to imagine authority, marriage and resistance within a small community whose social survival is inseparable from its built environment and beliefs.