Orkney

 I flew from Aberdeen to Orkney, on an early morning flight. I stayed at Kirkwall, one of the two major towns, in the Youth Hostel. I was in a 4 bed room, but ended up being by myself - bonus!

The first day was exploring the town - museum, craft show, lovely arty shops and the St Magnus Cathedral, and the ruins of the Bishop's Palace and Earl's Palace.

The museum has some wonderful pieces, but some are copies, with the originals being in the Edinburgh museum.

Combs are frequently found, carved from whale bone

Lots of stone tools from a wide range of stones

This is a pestle

Some Pictish Carvings

And this hood was fascinating

These are later made, but they used the grasses to make furniture

Trees are very scarce on the island, so driftwood was often used also.

And theis outfit was for a festival that still happens.

While at the Cathedral, I discovered that the little signs I was seeing were for the St Magnus Way, a Pilgrimage, following the route his body was taken on around the island. There was a section that I could catch a bus to the start and another at the end, so I decided to do it on one of my days. The lady at the Cathedral kindly deciphered the bus timetable information for me.

I had a great time doing the Cathedral 'hunt'. They all have them - and they have all been great.

I also love the carvings on the ends of the choir stalls. They had animals and birds on these.

The second day I booked at the last minute onto an organised tour which would take me to all of the important sites. Originally I was going to take the buses, but I decided it was worth the money to get the benefits of the small group tour. The guide was delightful and we weren't rushed at all. In contrast we also saw the huge bus loads from the cruise ships, but tried to avoid them!

Orkney has some very famous Neolithic sites: the Stones of Stenness, Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae are all very close to each other and were accessible. The Ness of Brodgar which lies between the Stones and the Ring, was closed - it has all been covered over after finishing the dig in 2024, but the Time Team crew were setting up to do a special small dig, because some 'anomalies' have been found in the data and the archaeologists believe that there is something below the original dig. Unfortunately I was too early - it was going to be open to the public for few weeks in late June. I'll have to wait for the Time Teams show!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7836wvx4q4o

It really is difficult to capture stone circles from the ground!

This shows the connection between Stenness, Ness and Ring of Brodgar

Some of the Stones

This one is on the causeway and lines up the Stones and Ring

And this is the one at the Ring that lines up

This gives you an idea of the Ring- it's actually bigger than Stonehenge and they now know that it  predates it.

Both of these sites are free - you can wander all around the Stones, but you have to stay out on the path around the Ring

Skara Brae is right on the coast in a bay which was probably formed when the land collapsed through the wild weather, so the settlement may not have been originally right on the shore. The site was discovered by the land owner in 1850 after a massive storm had washed away some of the dunes. The site was occupied from about 3180BC to around 2500BC and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. It was dubbed Skara Brae being Norse and Scots for a hill or mound.

The wiki site has great information  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae

It given the impression of being an underground village, but of course all the sand etc has built up over the centuries - the houses would have been above the surface.

They are linked together with walls which contained middens. The houses vary in size, but basically they have a central space with little alcoves, presumably for sleeping and some shelves for storing cooking gear etc.

They have a bit of a feel of a Hobbit hole, but because the roofs are gone, they appear shorter than they actually would have been. 

This shows the outline of the 'village'   You only get to walk around the edge and peer in, but you can see how close it is to the seawall which has been built

The rectangular sections are believed to be sleeping quarters

You can see the storage shelves, and the central fire area

The alcoves would also have been for storage - possibly food

They have built a reconstruction house and it shows some of the goods which were found