This impressive and atmospheric group of prehistoric burial chambers lie on the south bank of the River Nairn and half a mile southeast of the Culloden Moor battlefield. They date from the Bronze-Age, around 2000 BC, and are a mix of ring-cairns and passage graves. Despite their names, little is known about their real function (they might not have been...

Jarlshof is a warren of roofless subterranean chambers that are for the most part remarkable for being the remains of five separate eras – a sort of longstanding home-extension project in a several distinct styles. The oval structures are Bronze Age; Iron Agers added a broch (like the one at Mousa) and wheelhouses; Picts added dwellings too; then Vikings contributed...

Neolithic burial cairn, Maeshowe is an amazing structure – though not from the outside! But inside its size and masonry work is hugely impressive – even more so when you consider that it was built to line up with the direction of the sun’s rays during winter solstice (live at www.maeshowe.co.uk in December and January). Viking crusaders visited the site...

The village of Meigle may be tiny but in the world of Pictish and Scottish early-Christian art it is a giant. The village’s old schoolhouse now serves as the Meigle Museum and is packed with treasures from the 7th to 10th centuries. Many are former gravestones, and the premier piece is a two-meter tall slab that’s supposedly the gravestone of...

Towards the end of the Iron Age in around 500BC defensive forts called brochs became popular. These circular towers were cleverly constructed using two layers of dry walls and became considered defensive necessity throughout much of northern Scotland. Of all those that remain, this one at Mousa is the best preserved, partly because you can only reach it by boat:...

A crannog is an Iron Age dwelling-cum-fortification that was built as an island on Scottish lochs around 2,500 years ago. Loch Tay had several, as dives have revealed, and the Scottish Crannog Centre has pieced together the evidence to provide a fascinating reconstruction of what once was. Informative tours reveal a surprisingly sophisticated thatched wooden dwelling, complete with drawbridge. Interiors...

The 5000-year-old Neolithic village of Skara Brae was hidden by sand dunes for generations until 1850 when a storm hammered the adjacent idyllic Bay of Skaill and washed them away. This exposed a prehistoric village that’s so well-preserved that even the beds, cupboards, dressers, fireplaces, beds and boxes, have survived – thanks to being made from stone slabs. The site’s...