No orcs in Orkney

Yes, it is as cold as it looks.

Unbelievably they refer to themselves as Orkadians, which is a lot less fun. In any case, their islands (70ish of them – depending on how high the tide is) are quite lovely, and we were again compelled to be sad about how little time we had. We always blunder around by ourselves, but tight time constraints pushed us into an organized tour. Not that the driver or the company was in any way at fault, but it was validation of our preference for bumbling through places on our own as we were hustled from site to site (like we were being pursued by Orcs!) with scarcely 40 minutes per site to explore.

We started out from Inverness at 7:15 – the bus station was, thankfully, right next to the hostel. Unfortunately, everything was closed and it was far too early and cold (11 degrees Celsius!) to be up without the reinforcement of coffee. Brad set out on an intrepid voyage of exploration of the environs and returned covered in laurels (ie. coffee, hot chocolate, and breakfast pastries from the Costa – which is better than leaves). The long ride to John O’Groats was enlivened by commentary about what we could have seen if a massive wave of fog hadn’t rolled in producing white-out conditions. All the model villages we weren’t seeing were the product of the “clearances”. A difficult period in Scottish history when wealthy landowners removed their tenants from their small holdings.

We had only 20 minutes to explore John O’Groats, a location known to us solely from the expression “from Land’s End to Jon O’Groats” and the long distance walking/ cycling trail. In the event, it proved more than enough time as it was raining sideways and had dropped to 9 degrees!  The ferry was a few minutes late – understandably as the sea was very rough! Our next bus was waiting when we arrived and whisked us off to Kirkwall.

St. Magnus Cathedral

En route we saw Scapa Flow, a large natural harbor, and heard of its wartime disposition and significance. The Royal Navy was based here during WWI, and to protect it all access from the east was blocked by a barricade of scuttled ships. After the war the German fleet was remanded here until its fate was decided in negotiations. A few hours short of the decision, the sailors sunk the fleet. Most of the fleet was salvaged, but there are still a few ships which are popular dive sites. In WWII, the British again decided to house the fleet in Scapa Flow. However, in the intervening years the ship blockade had deteriorated due to salvage operations and the natural shifting of vessels. These gaps were successfully navigated by U-Boat 47 a bare month into hostilities and the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk. Winston Churchill ordered the construction of real barriers out of immense blocks. These created causeways connecting island to island by road instead of only ferries. The causeways were constructed by Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the Italian Chapel.

Kirkwall is the largest city in the Orkneys and home to the St. Magnus Cathedral. It is a Romanesque building constructed of red and yellow sandstones quarried in Orkney. The original structure dates from the 12^th century when Orkney was still part of Norway (as it was until 15^th century). It is named for Magnus, Earl of Orkney who was martyred by his cousin and fellow earl. The building was spared the worst of the Reformation and is one of the best preserved medieval buildings in Britain. Today, St. Magnus is no longer a cathedral, but a parish church in the Church of Scotland. The cathedral was toured at a jog as we had only 50 minutes and knew some kind of food would need to happen as well.

Skara Brae

We raced across the street to wolf down some lunch, as a packet of mini muffins split between 3 people wasn’t going to allow any of us to keep producing enough body heat to stave off hypothermia. We split a cheese toastie, soup, and bere bannocks. Bere bannocks are a fantastically delicious bread made from some highly specialized grain – 6 row barley? only grown in Orkney. Anyhow, it was wonderful and we made it back to the bus with a whole 2 minutes to spare! 

Skara Brae was the reason for our journey to these islands. It is the centerpiece of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney”. It is Europe’s best preserved Neolithic village. At first jaundiced glance (10 degrees and raining sideways – let’s remember and excuse the pettishness!) it looked like a mini golf for Hobbits. Exquisitely manicured emerald carpet of grass in gentle mounds and valleys protecting stone circles. After we got in among them we quickly got over the weather!

The site, a stone built Neolithic settlement on the Bay of Skaill, features eight houses grouped together, and they are in amazing condition for homes built before the Great Pyramids!

The village, estimated to have been occupied between 3100-2500 BCE, was discovered after a massive storm in 1850 blew the top off a protrusion called “Skerrabra” exposing the outline of the village. The local laird, William Watt, started digging and uncovered several of the houses. The work stopped there, and the site was left intact until 1913, when a group of thieves went to work over a weekend pillaging unknown quantities of artefacts. Another severe storm damaged one of the exposed houses, and it was decided to formally protect and properly excavate the site.  

It has been a gold mine of information about the daily lives of Neolithic peoples! The houses were built into pre-historic middens, sort of trash berms that protected the homes against the ravages of fierce storms and provided insulation as well. The houses are approximately 430 sq. ft. with a large square room centered on a good sized stone hearth. They feature built in stone furnishings: seats, storage containers, shelves, and a sort of dresser-like piece.  Seven buildings have very similar arrangements – beds and storage in the same locations even with large beds on the right and smaller beds on the left. Homes were entered through low doorways that had a sliding bar to close them. One feature that we really liked were the stone store boxes set in the ground that were sealed on the sides to waterproof them. It suggests that they were used to store living sea creatures – mollusks for bait or possibly crabs or other tasty crustaceans for dinner!

House 8 is definitely the odd-man out. It doesn’t have the storage pieces and is divided into several sections. This space yielded fragments of bone, stone, and antler when excavated and these pieces as well as its unique construction – it stands apart from the others and wasn’t built into an old midden, the walls are very thick and it has a sheltering “awning” over the entrance – suggest that it might have been some sort of workshop.

Unlike at Stonehenge, you can hug these
megaliths

The inhabitants of Skara Brae are referred to as Grooved Ware People (due to the prevalence of this type of pottery at the site). They were principally herdsmen, raising cattle and sheep, but the presence of fish bones and shells provide evidence that seafood was part of their diet as well.

A Neolithic “low road’ connects Skara Brae with the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Steness, and ends at the passage tomb of Maeshowe. This has led to some wonderfully entertaining theories of Skara Brae culture featuring mystical shaman-types performing magical ceremonies and processing between the various sites. Not that there is any reason the inhabitants should not have had a rich and elaborate spiritual life; they did build these other sites, but most evidence at this site seems to point to ordinary people living ordinary lives, herding their animals, cooking, fishing, making tools, and the like. Even Neolithic man cannot live by astronomy alone!

Back on the bus and with scarcely enough time to register our heartfelt gratitude for quick dry travel pants we arrived at the Ring of Brodgar. This site, like Avebury & Stonehenge, is unusual in having both a henge and a stone circle (Stonehenge – the most famous of these combination sites, isn’t actually a “true” henge! Its bank is inside the ditch instead of outside. This one lacks any encircling bank.) The ring stands on a sloping hillside sandwiched between Loch Steness and Loch Harray. It is thought to have been erected between 2500-2000 BCE, but exact scientific dating has been problematic.

It is the 3^rd largest stone circle in Britain at 341 ft. in diameter and originally had around 60 stones. Today there are only 27, and they are not all standing – one was felled by lightning just a few years ago. Here there is no barrier and you can walk right up to and in among the stones. The views over the surrounding countryside and lochs are stunning.

This whole area (as evidenced by its designation as a UNESCO World heritage Site!) is an extraordinary concentration of ancient sites. It was raining sideways again so we all settled for a drive by of the Standing Stones of Steness & Maeshowe. We did have a quick look at the ongoing excavations. These archeological examinations continue to reveal settlement activity and a rich trove of artefacts and information from the prehistoric period.

Our last stop was at the Italian Chapel. This Italian POWs held in the Orkneys requested permission to construct a chapel and were given two Quonset huts and very little else to work with. They managed to create a remarkable space Trompe l’oeil vaulted ceiling, decorative brickwork, stained glass, and even floor tiles marvelously executed impress instantly. The screen was produced from scrap metal and the lanterns and sconces cut from Bully beef tins. It is an extraordinary achievement! These prisoners were inarguably the inheritors of the same faith and skill that wrought such miracles at chapels in real materials in their native land. They were so dedicated to this endeavor that when the war ended, several asked permission to stay and complete their work!

It was a whirlwind tour of these northern islands to say the least. We would have probably cut a few sites and extended our stay at the others, but it all worked out. We reversed our journey and arrived back in Inverness at about 9:30. Fortunately, restaurants were open until 11 pm!  We were able to eat our first real meal of the day and then pack to be ready to catch the first train to Edinburgh in the morning.