Heritage Action Forums

Skara Brae in Orkney “could be lost forever” if money can not be found to protect it from coastal erosion, experts are warning.

For 2000 years it has withstood the worst that nature can throw at it including hurricane force winds and tidal storm surges but the more severe weather events also pose an imminent threat to Orkney’s rich archaeological past.

Julie Gibson, county archaeologist, said: “There are many sites scattered throughout Scotland and some of them are very valuable but money only goes so far.

“There will have to be some kind of decision making by those that are tasked to preotect the sites and I doubt very much if the money will go very far in the face of tidal power.”

In 1920s, at the height of the Great Depression, urgent work began to protect Skara Brae from the erosive effect of violent storms which routinely batter the nearby coastline.

In recent years more frequent and extreme storms have accelerated the erosion.