This is a photograph that we took when we visited Skara Brae overlooking the bay of Skaill in the West Mainland parish of Sandwick, Orkney. This Neolithic village, one of Orkney's most-visited ancient sites and regarded by many as one of the most remarkable monuments in Europe, was built in two stages. The upper stage was built 5,000 years ago (3100 BC) atop the remains of a previously existing village. Residents built the village by forming a large pile of domestic rubbish or midden. They then dug down into the midden to create spaces for their houses and the passageways linking them. Skara Brae could have been abandoned because a great storm covered it with sand. In the winter of 1850 the combination of Orkney's notorious winds and extremely high tides stripped the grass from a large mound known then as Skerrabra and exposed parts of the ruins seen today. Evidence of furnishings, i.e. shelves, is shown in the center of this photograph. Temperatures were in the mid-60's on this partly cloudy to sunny day.