Well it is difficult to put into words just how awesome the last few days traveling around the Orkney Islands (just the mainland actually) has been. These islands have been inhabited for over 10,000 years and you can't move far in any direction without stumbling across evidence of that fact. There are over 5000+ Neolithic sites in these Islands and I along with a political science colleague and her husband saw eleven of them. And unlike magestic Stonehenge, these are sitting in farmers' fields, on cliff edges, and along the road where you are free (and encouraged) to explore them, walk in and around them, and to touch them with only the direction to follow common courtesy and not disturb livestock or leave gates open. It was the trip of a lifetime.
It was a trip that began last Wednesay when we headed off by train to London and from there we flew through Edinburgh to the central Island town of Kirkwall. The picture above was taken out on a pier. Moments before this, I had returned from a day of shoping and exploring in town to see a full rainbow arching across the harbour and the sun shining on the next island off to the north. I rushed into our b&b to grab my camera and hustled back to the harbor 9only a block away) to get my picture. At that moment, the wind and rain came down blowing the rain almost horizontal. I was drenched in seconds but I figured I should at least get a picture of the town. The Cathedral of St. Magnus is at the center, a beautiful 12th century church, now a Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) church, though it still contains the relics of St. Magnus in one of its walls.
The first day we were there, we decided to hit the most famous site, Skara Brae, first. But on the way, we discovered the remains of another Neolithic settlement, called Barnhouse. It was situated between to lochs, and connected to the remains of the settlement were the two ceremonial sites: the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Here they were...every bit as old or older than Stonehenge, just sitting by the road with a small car park to pull into while you wandered the circles. These were incredible. The Stones of Stenness (the first of the two above) are older, being built around 3000 BCE while the more elaborate Ring of Brodgar is estimated to have been build 500 years later. The Ring is encircled with a 3 meter deep and 10 meter wide ditch. It was also surrounded by barrows. Amazingly, in the 12th century, a Norse vistor carved him name (Bjorn) in runes on one of the stones...early graffiti on something already more that 3000 years old! You can see me standing next to one of these stones to get some sense for their size.
Already overwhelmed, we headed on to Skara Brae, which was a Neolithic settlement on the west coast of the island, uncovered by a massive storm in 1850. It is one of Orkney's most famous sites and was thought to be unique until farmers started finding similar settlements all over the place.
You can see the beauty of it despite a typical Orkney day where the weather changed every few minutes. Below is a picture taken over the top of the settlement if you will. You can see the individual "houses" that were all connected through a partially subterranean corridor that linked all the family dwellings together. There are six surviving houses here that was home to between 50-100 people and was in use for over 600 years. In the close up of the most elaborate of the houses, you can see how people lived. The stone shelfs are thought to be just that...a place to store and display the families prized posessions, some of which were found there. You can see a central hearth and around the exterior walls were beds. Imagine each of those stone areas piled with soft grasses and them animal pelts. You could imagine being quite warm snuggled in one of those with the fire going. There is also a smaller square of stones in front of the dresser to the right. This was lined with clay and was used to keep fish and shellfish alive until they were ready to be cleaned and eaten.
After we wandered around this site for awhile, I wandered down to the beach. It was covered in small pink jelly fish so I was glad to have my wellies on. As you can see in the picture, all of this put me in a pensive mood. Since I was on the west side of the Island, I promised Jim I would wave to him across the sea though that just made me wish he was there to see all of these things with me.
From Skara Brae, we drove on to yet another site: the Brough (pronounced "brock") of Birsay. This was a combination of Pict (9th C) and Norse (11-12th C) settlements. It is on an island only accessible by a causeway at low tide. We were lucky to be there just at the right time though we were also not so fortunate as the rain and wind picked up just as we got out of the car. But we soldiered on! If you follow the line of the causeway out, you will see a small white dote that is actually a marker right in the center of this settlement. While there are many ruins here, Birsay had a monastic community here and was the cathedral in the 11th century. The other picture showa a view looking into thenave of this small Romanesque church.
Once you let your eye pass through the nave, there is another small opening that would have been the entry to the apse and the altar. Surrounding all of this were the remains of Norse houses, an underground drainage system covered in stone, and assorted other buildings. As you can imagine, this was built on an excellent promentory where you were protected (at least during high tide) and could see for miles.
We packed it in after that and found our way back to Kirkwall and the B&B.The next day, we went off again. This time getting a tour of Maeshowe, a Neolithic tomb out in the middle of yet another sheep pasture. It was such a fine example of it's kind, it has given it's name to the tomb structure itself...built as a set of stones all graduated so that they finally met toward the top and were covered by larger stones and the the whole thing was covered in earth. There were as many as 400 people buried there and like plenty of treasure. A group of Norsemen sheltered there and used their axes to write graffiti in runes all over the stones. There were animals and sea serpents, as well as Viking bravado ("I'm Thor and I wrote these excellent runes high up with my ax") or more adolescent messages ("That woman in the next village is hot"). But there it all is.
Later that day, we went to find two other cairns, smaller than Maeshowe but close by. By now it was raining and the wind was beginning to pick up and approach the predicted 60-70 mile an hour gales. Finding Widesford Hill Cairn was not easy. We drove behind a herd of cows, fresh from their milking, on their way back to pasture. Needless to say we couldn't get by until the farmer had prodded them along and reopened the gate to let us drive through his property and up this massive hill to the car park...such as it was. Well, we thought, we've been through alot, how bad can this be? We got out into the rain and trudged off around the upper shoulder of this hill. Once we were out of sight of the car, the path (a small footpath through the heather) started heading back down and around this hill. My comrades gave up and worried about getting back up the hill again. I thought: "I'm cold and wet...this better be worth it" and continued on alone...scaring the grouse out of the heather. You can just see me going out of site here in my red rain coat. The trail went on and on until suddenly there it was! Dug into the hillside was this burial mound. Always thoughtful and polite, the Scots leave a flashlight in a small wooden box for vistors, reminding them to turn it off when they put it back. So armed with this torch, I climbed up on top of the cairn to find a trapdoor on rollers. You push this open and climb into a 2x2-foot hole into this tomb! It was wild though I was just glad to be out of the wet. All I could think of was the opening to Lord of the Rings when the hobbits are captured by a barrow-wight...sort of an evil ghost that lives in these tombs. It was fantastic but I didn't linger and headed back up and out into the rain and wind and up that darned hill! Oh my goodness were my colleagues right to turn back! I thought to myself..."now Bill, take it easy, stop and catch your breath and whatever you do, don't have a heart attack (this was a STEEP slope going back)...while I was wearing a red coat, no one could get to me even if I needed help!" So...slowly but surely, I made my way back up to the car, totally breathless, where my companions were cozy and warm and asked "so how was it?" in an overly perky way...I was not amused. They then wanted to go find the second cairn...I wanted to go back to my room and collapse...but I went along with it. Fiddle-dee-dee...another farmers field...another 5000 year old burial mound. This was called the Cuween Hill Cairn. Yes, another hill though much less steep and a relatively short climb. But this Cairn had no trap door...so the only way in was on hands and knees...carefully crawling along a 2-3 meter tunnel to the central chamber. That's me (looking none the worse for wear wouldn't you say?) in the next picture.
Okay, one last story. We drove out to the west side of the island south of Skara Brae to see the Brough of Borwick. Nothing more than ruins on a cliff side. But the cliffs themselves and the sea were the things I'll conclude with. One wanders along a path that runs across the top of these sandstone cliffs. Layer after layer of an ancient sea bed chock full of fossilized algae, cracked mud, wavey sand dunes like in the shallow water at the beach, and other difficult to name prehistoric sea life.
The brough itself as you can see is mostly ruins but finding this set in this position on the coast was remarkable. The picture below shows the trek there and back. The weather held for us so it was a glorious hike.
Further on you can see me being my usual daring self around rocks and the sea...I have to see it all up close. But this wasn't the Atlantic coast in New Jersey. So on this one occasion I decided to lay down and take a peak over the edge from a slightly more secure position. The last two pictures however were worth a little risk don't you think? 
The views from the edge (it was the edge but not quite as scary as that sounds...I was back against a wall of sandstone and probably two or three feet from the actual edges most of the time. But I couldn't help myself. As you can see from these views, one can only remain in silent, reverent awe when you see such things.
The earth and sea in all their splendor and power!
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