Some of the world’s oldest structures have survived for 5,000 years in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, from Stone Age villages complete with kitchen hearths and bedsteads to a Neolithic tomb covered by Viking graffiti. Heavy rainfall, which has increased nearly 26% in the last 50 years, is dissolving the crusts of soil and sand packs that protect these remnants of civilizations. “Heritage is falling into the sea,” says archaeology Professor Jane Downes. Read about the modern historical role the Orkneys played in WWI, including the sinking of the German fleet, in On the Shore (see NOVELS).
