Please refer to Zooms and Clichés: Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland for more information
One would be forgiven for thinking that faraway islands like the Orkney were a backwater for centuries. Recent archeological discoveries have shown that is far from the truth: the Orkney were at the centre of a sophisticated neolithic civilisation, the ramifications of which are still being studied. Sites such as the Ness of Brodgar, the standing stones of Brodgar and Skara Brae ( 3200 BC, see photo illustrating this article ) are much older than the world-famous Stonehenge circle.