Beremeal

I can think of few places in the world where there is such evidence of the continuity of diet spanning 5,000 years. But on Orkney, the collective name for the archipelago of 70 islands off the north east of Scotland, I was lucky enough to visit the fascinating Skara Brae, a Neolithic village dating back to 3,100 bc, centuries before the Pyramids of Giza were built. At Skara Brae, the best-preserved Neolithic village in Europe, you can look inside the houses from the Middle Stone Age with their central fire and a large stone, to cook their bread or bannocks on, at the side; you can see the ‘saddle querns’ where barley was ground between two stones. Neolithic Orcadians ate - as well as seabirds such as fulmars, gannets and auks - shellfish, fish, cheese, meat and game. And barley. Wheat was also found in excavations here, which is interesting as it is no longer possible for it to be grown as it is too cold; Orkney 5,000 years ago was some three degrees warmer than now.