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It may not look like much, 

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but that is one of the most important
archeological sites in Western Europe.

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When I say it's prehistoric,
I mean that literally.

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The ruins that are buried here
at Ness of Brodgar

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are from around 5000 years ago,
when writing hadn't really been invented.

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And this... 

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...this is an old worn out tire.

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And today, a team of volunteers
are putting 500 of these on top of that.

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- The Ness of Brodgar is a huge Neolithic
complex discovered in 2002

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when we did geophysics across this area.

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Despite the size of the trenches,

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this only covers approximately
10% of the site. It's massive.

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It is a place of gathering,
5000 years ago.

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We can envisage hundreds
of people coming here.

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Neolithic society
wasn't a static society

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and through the thousand
years that the Ness was in use,

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we see those changes
reflected in the architecture.

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What the Ness of Brodgar
has unlocked for archeologists

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is a huge range of information.

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We have many new discoveries, new types
of discoveries at the Ness of Brodgar.

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The preservation is quite remarkable.

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Under nine inches of topsoil
we have Neolithic walls standing.

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And this is because this field has
never, ever been deeply ploughed.

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- The reason for the tyres, and the plastic
underneath, is a bit more obvious when

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you know where we are:

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the Orkney Islands,
off the northern tip of Scotland.

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The weather here can be brutal.
Sure, it's nice today.

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The temperature's usually mild. 

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We're at the end of the Gulf Stream here,
so it rarely gets too hot or too cold.

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But we're next to the ocean.

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The wind is harsh and fast
and it blows in salt spray.

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The trouble with exposing the past
is that, well, you're exposing the past.

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- As soon as it's exposed to the air,

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water can start getting into the very fine
laminations in the building stone.

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And literally, you'd see these walls start
to crumble at the end of each season.

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We cover the site with layers of plastic,

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then to hold all those covers in place,
all these hundreds of tyres.

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I used to live at the top of the hill
just behind us, where we recorded once

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a gust of over 120mph.

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And after some of the big storms
we have in the winter,

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despite our best efforts, 

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sometimes you come back to site
and the corner of the polythene 

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and some of the tyres will have
actually been moved by the wind.

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- The old tyres are a practical solution. 

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They're free, they're heavy
but they can be moved fairly easily.

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And they're just soft enough
not to cause damage

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when they're on top
of the plastic sheeting. 

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They look ugly. They're going to disappoint 
any visitors for the next few months, 

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but it means the site is
still going to be there, intact,

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When spring comes
and archaeology can start again.

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- We have to protect it.

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We have to do this
to the best of our abilities,

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because these walls have stood
for over 5,000 years.

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And it's a top priority for us
to hopefully keep them there

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and keep them in prime condition
for the next 5,000 years.

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- To be honest, they didn't
actually need the tire there.

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They just gave me one so
I could be out of the way of

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the volunteers who are
doing the actual hard work.