Talk:Skara Brae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the Scottish Islands WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of islands in Scotland. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start This page has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Top This article has been rated as top-importance on the importance scale.

Article Grading:
The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.
This article falls within the scope of WikiProject UK geography, a user-group dedicated to building a comprehensive and quality guide to places in the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you wish to participate, share ideas or merely get tips you can join us at the project page where there are resources, to do lists and guidelines on how to write about settlements.
United Kingdom Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale. (Add assessment comments)
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance within the UK geography WikiProject.

[edit] Naming

How did Skara Brae get it's name? Did the Scots give it to it? Or was there some writing there from the original inhabitants? The snare 22:22, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

  • This is speculative. The Orkneys were under Norwegian control for many centuries; the name maybe comes from the Norse word skåra, meaning a notch, cut, score or scratch. Or possibly from the the English verb scar, which is Middle English, alteration of escare, Late Latin eschara, Greek eskhara, hearth, scab caused by burning. Or, it could be a corruption of the Norse sker (English skerry, a rock in the sea); there's no rock that I know of close by though (although the sea has moved inland quite a bit over the last few millenia. The word brae in Scots is a hill or rise. Some research required I think. Alex 23:20, 28 May 2007 (UTC)


According to an uncited edit at Brae, "The word 'Brae' in Shetland dialect has a different meaning; it comes from the Old Norse word breiðr meaning broad.". Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk 12:02, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PC games

Great page! However, I'd like to bring a small thing to your attention that could be added to "references". Skara Brae is also the name of the city in which the 80s PC video game, "The Bard's Tale", is set (although the world in the video game is obviously fictional).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard%27s_Tale_%281985%29 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.117.37 (talk) 04:55, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

There have been numerous attempts to introduce this kind of material here - and thank-you for not doing so! What would actually be helpful would be a new Skara Brae (disambiguation) page that lists the different uses. Fictional works in whatever medium deserve mention here only if they actually utilise the real site - not if they simply borrow the name. Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk 09:24, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Paragraph "Vandalism"

Is this 2007 graffiti incident really noteworthy? The graffiti were successfully removed and I don't think there is any long-term significance. Seems to be a piece of news without encyclopedic relevance. Therefore I suggest removing the paragraph as well. Gestumblindi (talk) 19:39, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed - and many thanks for the dab page. Ben MacDuiTalk/Walk 10:27, 2 January 2008 (UTC)