Knap of Howar, Orkney The UK's oldest surviving building is this Neolithic farmstead on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney. The walls stood to a cosy height of 1.6 metres (5 ft 3 in), and the stone furniture is still intact.

Determining the oldest building still standing in the UK depends on how you define “building” (inhabitable structure, religious site, tomb, etc.). However, the consensus among archaeologists and historians is that the title belongs to a Neolithic (Stone Age) tomb known as a chambered long barrow.

The strongest candidate is:

West Kennet Long Barrow (near Avebury, Wiltshire)

• Built: circa 3650 BCE (over 5,600 years old).
• What it is: A large, stone-built tomb chamber and mound, used for communal burials over a period of about 1,000 years.
• Why it’s a “building”: It has a constructed passage and five burial chambers made of massive sarsen stones, which were intentionally designed and assembled as an enclosed, roofed structure.

---

Other very strong contenders (all Neolithic tombs):

1. Wayland’s Smithy (Oxfordshire) – built around 3600 BCE.
2. Belas Knap (Gloucestershire) – built around 3800 BCE, though the visible structure is a careful reconstruction.
3. Pentre Ifan (Pembrokeshire, Wales) – a dolmen (portal tomb) from about 3500 BCE.
4. Barpa Langass (North Uist, Scotland) – a chambered cairn from around 3000 BCE.

---

Important Distinctions:

• Older than buildings: There are even older monuments like Stonehenge (earthworks began c. 3000 BCE) and