Orkney and Neolithic Remains

 Far and Away is officially in the North Sea! We had an easy crossing to the salty town of Stromness. Our first day there we rented bikes and traveled to some of the Neolithic sites nearby. Neolithic means the late Stone Age period, 10,000 BC to 1,200 BC. Orkney is very fertile even though it is far north so people were attracted to this area a long time ago. On the way to the first site we stopped and walked along some cliffs to a couple of sea stacks.

We picnicked by the edge and watched the guillemots coming and going.

Then we popped back on our bikes and traveled a few miles up the coast past many, many sleek, heavy cows to Skara Brae. In the 1800’s a storm washed away some dunes, exposing a beautifully preserved village from the Neolithic era. Luckily, the laird who owned the property was interested in history. He called in knowledgeable people who knew what they were doing so the site wasn’t destroyed.

Each home had a central hearth.

The trash middens gave a good picture of what they ate and harvested. Lots of limpets!

Each round house was connected to others by covered passageways.

They had these structures opposite the entry that historians call dressers but no one really knows what they were used for.

The boxes with stone slab side walls were beds that they believed were filled with grasses and skins for warmth.

The walls were beautifully made. Hard to believe they are 4,000 years old. Despite no written record, one got a sense of the people who lived here so long ago.

This figure was found there. A toy? Religious object? These people had time to decorate and create. 

After visiting the site we wandered through the manor house, owned by the laird who wanted to preserve Skara Brae. It too gave a good depiction of family life of the wealthy. The house was lived in full time until the sixties.

Next stop on our bike tour was an isthmus separating two lochs. There were two sets of standing stones and a huge archeological dig going on.

No one knows why the ancient people cut the stones with angles.

This is The Ring of Brodar, considered one of the largest and best preserved circles - although I’ve never seen Stonehenge to compare. Perhaps a henge is a different category.

This is a stone from The Stones of Stenness, the remains of one of the oldest rings - 5,000 years old! In the 1800’s a farmer leased the field and he was tired of plowing around the stones so he started to take them down! Even back then the neighbors realized that wasn’t a good idea so they stopped him. They even tried to burn his house down twice. I was surprised how thin this stone was. They say they aren’t dug in very deep.

This is the excavation called The Ness of Brodgar. They have been at it for 30 years and now have so many artifacts and data that they are going to cover it up at the end of this summer to preserve it while they take the time to analyze the information they have collected.

This massive collection of buildings seems to be ceremonial because they haven’t found any homes. They are built around various standing stones. Looking at this site created many unanswered questions!

Once again, beautiful stone work. This corner is an obtuse angle, not just a plain 90 degree angle.