The Orkney Islands are situated off the northern tip of Scotland. Of the 90 or so islands about one quarter are inhabited, with the majority of the population living on the West Mainland. The islands are almost treeless with spectacular sea-cliffs and sweeping views on the western, side and long sandy beaches on the East.
Orkney contains a wealth of well-preserved prehistoric sites as well as Britain's oldest standing houses (5500 years old) on the island of Papa Westray. The Heart of Neolithic Orkney comprises a 5000 year old village of Skara Brae, ceremonial stone circles at Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, the magnificent chambered tomb of Maes Howe, and a range of other ritual monuments.
These monuments are an outstanding testimony to the cultural achievement of the Neolithic people of northern Europe. As a group they constitute a major relic cultural landscape, graphically depicting life in this remote archipelago north of the coast of Scotland.