"The oldest preserved stone house in northwest Europe, standing on Papa Westray's coast for nearly six thousand years"
Knap of Howar
Papa Westray, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom
On the western shore of Papa Westray, one of Orkney's smallest inhabited islands, two stone buildings stand with their doorways facing the sea. The Knap of Howar is a Neolithic farmstead dating from approximately 3700 to 2800 BCE, making it possibly the oldest preserved stone house in northwest Europe, predating the famous settlement at Skara Brae by several centuries. The buildings retain their original doorways, stone partitions, and stone benches, a level of preservation that makes the domestic life of their Neolithic inhabitants startlingly tangible.
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Quick Facts
Location
Papa Westray, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom
Tradition
Site Type
Coordinates
59.3490, -2.9180
Last Updated
Feb 6, 2026
The Knap of Howar represents the earliest phase of Neolithic settlement in Orkney, when farming communities first established permanent stone-built homes on the islands. The farmstead predates most of the archipelago's famous monuments by centuries and provides evidence of the domestic foundations on which Orkney's Neolithic civilisation was built.
Origin Story
No origin narrative survives from the Neolithic inhabitants. The farmstead was established around 3700 BCE by farming people who grew barley and wheat, kept cattle, sheep, and pigs, and supplemented their diet with fish and shellfish. They were among the first settlers to establish permanent homes on Papa Westray. Their buildings represent the domestic infrastructure of a society that would go on to produce the chambered tombs, stone circles, and settlements that make Orkney one of the most important Neolithic landscapes in Europe.
Key Figures
Anna Ritchie
Spiritual Lineage
No continuous tradition connects the present to the Neolithic inhabitants. The farmstead was abandoned around 2800 BCE and buried by sand. It was rediscovered in the modern era and excavated in the twentieth century. Its significance is primarily archaeological, but the site also serves as a powerful point of connection to the earliest chapter of settled life in Orkney.
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