Skara Brae

PricingHalf price in your first year of English Heritage membership, then freeEH memberHalf, then freeNon-member£16

EH members: half price, then freeInfo

Half price, then free, for English Heritage members

This place is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland. First-year English Heritage members get 50% off the ticket price; members who have renewed get in free. Bring your valid membership card, and any pre-booked tickets, to ensure entry.

Pre-booking is recommended at Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae, Stirling Castle, Blackness Castle, Urquhart Castle, Doune Castle and Maeshowe. Bookings are limited to six people per membership.
Bring the card itself: joint and family memberships admit the named holders only.
Historic Scotland does not offer reciprocal admission to National Trust properties, and a National Trust card is not accepted here.

More information

Entry

Non-member prices

Adult (aged 16 to 64), including Skaill House£16.00

Child (aged 7 to 15), including Skaill House£8.00

Concession (aged 65 and over), including Skaill House£13.00

Pricing details

In-person price for 1 April to 31 October 2026, when the ticket includes Skaill House; £14 booked online, and booking is needed to guarantee entry. From November to March tickets cover Skara Brae only at lower prices (£10 online for an adult on the webstore; no winter walk-up price published). Children under 7 free but need a ticket; up to two carers free per transaction; Young Scot card holders pay £1 online. Explorer Pass accepted. No family ticket or audio guide; the paid Orkney Digital Guide is sold separately online. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price to 31 October 2026; £7 booked online; under-7s free with a ticket. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

In-person price to 31 October 2026; £11 booked online. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says the level, tarmac-surfaced car park next to the visitor centre has accessible bays and the visitor centre is approached across it, with coach parking listed. No charge or free statement is published for this site, so the status is recorded as unknown. There are no spaces for large campervans, which should phone ahead to check for space in the Skaill beach car park 500 m north; visitors to Skaill House with limited mobility can be dropped off directly outside it.

Driving pin: the visitor car park, 65 m east of the visitor centre and about 400 m from HES's pin on the village, which is a 500 m walk along a bound-stone path. Historic Scotland names only its journey planners for buses; bicycle rack on site.

About

Skara Brae lets you step back 5,000 years into the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe, a village that thrived beside the Bay of Skaill long before Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids were built. Uncovered by a storm in 1850, its nine surviving stone houses are set into midden mounds and linked by covered passageways, each a single room of about 40 square metres with its original stone furniture still in place: dressers, box beds, central hearths and small floor tanks, perhaps for fish bait; a larger building with a special hearth and no beds may have been a workshop. Finds suggest a peaceful life that ended around 2500 BC. The visitor centre tells the story first, then a replica house shows a complete interior before the 500-metre path to the village, viewed from a path above the houses. It is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, and from April to October the ticket includes Skaill House, the 17th-century mansion nearby. Book ahead.

Check today’s timesPick a day for times and prices

The exhibition will be closed Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 October. The rest of the site will remain open.

Until 24 Dec: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:00
25 Dec–7 Jan: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:00
8 Jan–31 Mar: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:00

Later dates are in the calendar.

Today, Saturday 24 October

Skara Brae10:00 – 16:00last entry 15:00

Prices, non-members

Ticket	On the day	Online
Adult	£16.00	£14.00
Concession	£13.00	£11.00
Child	£8.00	£7.00

Book tickets

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm, with Skaill House open through the summer; 1 October to 31 March daily 10am to 4pm; last entry one hour before closing; closed 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January. All visits should be booked in advance to guarantee entry: Historic Scotland names Skara Brae among the busy sites where partner members should pre-book, with bookings capped at six people per membership, and no walk-up tickets are sold once online tickets are gone. Notices: the exhibition is closed on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 October 2026 with the rest of the site open; the cafe is open daily until 31 October. If the village is closed by weather, a reduced ticket covers the exhibition and visitor centre.

The visitor centre has ramped access, level floors and an adapted toilet; from it a 500 m path of mainly bound crushed stone with a timber latch gate leads to the village, where a one-way route on stone and grass paths views the original houses from above, with some slopes. Cafe (seasonal), shop, picnic area, self-service tea and coffee, baby changing, guided tours. Pet dogs are not admitted; a bull may be in the neighbouring field.

Photo: The grass-topped stone walls of Skara Brae's Neolithic houses above the Bay of Skaill, with the far shore of the bay behind. Smeashy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Overview_of_Skara_Brae,_showing_building_walls_and_the_bay.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.