Reopening the Ness of Brodgar

There is just nowhere quite like it anywhere in the world. And I’m saying that as a travel writer who has ventured to over 100 countries over the last three decades. I’m talking about the most remarkable prehistoric site that I’ve ever come across, the unparalleled Ness of Brodgar in Orkney. And the startling news is that it is coming alive again this summer and you can be a part of the exciting explorations.

That’s right – the Ness of Brodgar is a massive complex of buildings five millennia old that is, as Card puts it, “without parallel in Europe and of global importance”. He talks of more Neolithic art being found that anywhere else in Britain, with over 10,000 discoveries.

Other prehistoric sites are on the face of it are more impressive. Not least burrowing down the dark tunnel into the ancient burial cairn of the Tomb of the Eagles in Orkney, or having myriad periods on display on one site at Jarlshof in Shetland. But it is the Ness of Brodgar that brings ancient Orkney really to life, changing the way we think of modern Britain. And when I think of the Ness of Brodgar I now include the surrounding Stones of Stenness, Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe within its orbit to make it my number one. It was the finds at the Ness that connected everything.

With so many of Orkney’s Neolithic treasures sprinkled along or around a sinewy corridor between the lochs of Stenness and Harray, the existence now of the Ness of Brodgar’s treasures seems obvious. The Ness of Brodgar site is the larger settlement and collage of buildings where our ancient ancestors lived their lives, the fulcrum connecting the sites that we used to think of as disparate, worlds in their own. The discoveries of the Ness of Brodgar had Neil Oliver enthusing on the BBC about it cementing Orkney’s place as ‘Britain’s Ancient Capital”.

I get where Oliver is coming from as its treasures upped our estimates of the scale of Orkney’s prehistoric population, soaring it to around 20,000 inhabitants, similar to the population today. The Ness connected the already excavated sites and forged them into a more cohesive whole. This easily makes Orkney the largest settled area of the British Isles during those days, turning some of our presumptions about the history of the British Isles on their head. Long before the good folks of Salisbury Plain were struggling to erect their stone monoliths at Stonehenge people where thriving in Orkney.

The man behind the Ness of Brodgar digs, Nick Card, is much less dramatic in his use of language than Neil Oliver. I’ve interviewed Nick several times over the years, including in 2022, when he told me, “to call Orkney Britain’s ancient capital doesn’t stack up as there was no notion of Britain then, not even an embryonic one.”

Ever the empiricist, Card eschews hyperbole but has always been clearly proud of what they found here in the series of digs from 2004-2024 that attracted the interest of scholars the world over, as well as numerous volunteers who poured into the site for the summer digs.

TV crews piled in too, including the Time Team. The digs were open to the public too, offering an ongoing window into archaeology which helped cement the Ness of Brodgar’s place in my own affections.

Over the two decades of the Ness of Brodgar excavations myriad Neolithic treasures were unearthed alongside even older Mesolithic treasures. Post-dig work on the finds will continue for years. We’re talking a sweep of over 5,000 years of history. That’s right – the Ness of Brodgar is a massive complex of buildings five millennia old that is, as Card puts it, “without parallel in Europe and of global importance”. He talks of more Neolithic art being found that anywhere else in Britain, with over 10,000 discoveries.

When the Ness of Brodgar site was closed over in 2024 and the end of the digs was announced I presumed that was that and a deserved retirement awaited Card. I suspect he did too. But times change in archaeology; in technology too. New Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has carved deep into the Ness of Brodgar indicating some exciting, unprecedented new discoveries.

“The new technology offers a pioneering approach,” explains Card. “We have never seen it used on this scale in Scotland and during the in-depth exploration something quite extraordinary was found, a major anomaly we did not expect. It could be the tip of a huge archaeological iceberg, potentially adding a new layer to our understanding of the site and of Orkney.”

Card talks of the “big surprise” with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) after it was able to survey the whole site in days, unthinkable even a few short years ago. The equipment has never been used in Scotland before, with the radar dragged behind a quad bike. This allowed over two billion data points to be scooped up quickly and efficiently, which created a 2D and then 3D model.

Card makes it clear that they won’t really know what they have found until the summer dig, a dig that anyone can witness. What Card revealed for now when I chatted to him on Zoom was “the anomaly is well-defined and not by lines and geometry. It is not rectangular or linear, like what we found before, so read into that what you will.”

For now, I’m trying not to read too much into what wily Card told me. I’m way too excited to form a clear idea of what the ancients may soon share with us. You could wait until the Time Team documentary in the autumn reveals the finds, or you could jump on NorthLink Ferries and head up to check it out for yourself.

If you do come soon, you’ll see why the Ness of Brodgar stirs so much in me and along with its surrounding treasures forms for me the most remarkable prehistoric site in the world. And that is even before this summer’s exciting discoveries.

• Dates for the Time Team-funded targeted dig have been confirmed as running from Tuesday, July 7, right until Thursday, July 30. The digs will happen on weekdays only. You won’t be able to see into the old digs from 2004-2024, only the trench that was identified during the 2025 radar surveys. Look out for site tours. For more information see www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk.

By Robin McKelvie
Robin McKelvie is an award-winning travel writer and broadcaster who has been published in over 200 magazines and newspapers worldwide.

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