Neolithic and Bronze Age Wonders

A good thing about visiting Orkney is that everything is relatively close, so no drives over about 30 minutes. Of course, one must still deal with single-track roads with passing places, or sometimes not enough passing places! We had three sites in the plan, two reserved in advance.

First, a guided tour of Maeshowe, a Neolithic burial site similar to the one we walked to yesterday, but much better preserved. Awesome to have a guide, Carey, to explain it all.

We had to walk bent over for about 30 feet to reach the midpoint of the cairn. No pictures inside, of course, but the tour was worth it. The guide did a wonderful job explaining things.

The site was made in Neolithic times, latter part of the Stone Age. Later, in the Bronze Age, Vikings also used the site. Some left messages, mostly their names (the guide thought the messages were from bored teenagers — graffiti like what happens today). She explained how to read the Viking runes, and showed us the etching that became the symbol of the site. (Pictured above.)

Carey also explained the henge, the low wall that encircles most sites of this approximate age. She said that the henge was to separate the outside, where normal life occurs from the inside, which deals with matters of a more spiritual nature.

We next went to a site that had no guided tours, Standing Stones of Stennis. So many tour buses! We waited for a break in the crowds before venturing to the site. Fortunately for us, the cruise-ship tourists had limited time, so we didn’t have to wait long. Also, we had leftover pizza from the night before, so we ate lunch in the car.

Standing Stones of Stennis, those still standing

The third part of this UNESCO World Heritage Site was a Ranger-led tour of one of the largest stone circles known, the Ring of Brodgar. This is the only site known to our guide that did not have a henge surrounding it. But it did have a big ditch surrounding the ring of stones, which allowed access to the center from only two points about 180 degrees apart.

The guide asked us to think of reasons for the ring of stones. My favorite was a market, like our farmer’s markets today, with only two entrances so that thieves could not escape easily.

The ditch surrounding the stones was cut into the bedrock, accentuating the bright white circle.

So many Neolithic sites so close together! Perfect as a UNESCO Site.

We enjoyed looking at the plants at all these sites as well. The Ring of Brodgar is covered with wildflowers. Here are a few examples:

After driving back to Kirkwall, we walked to St. Magnus Cathedral, the highlight of the town. A group of musicians were practicing in the cathedral for their performance later that evening, part of the annual St. Magnus International Festival. The music was eerie, spiritual, quite fitting for a cathedral!

From the outside, there is evidence of deterioration of the sandstone blocks over the centuries.

The inside of the cathedral reveals a colossal structure with huge sandstone columns supporting the high ceiling.

There were many wood figures inside, as well as many memorials lining the walls, most of which have deteriorated to the point of illegibility.

The Orkney Islands partially protect a natural harbor called Scapa Flow, with additional protection from strategically sunken ships. However, the protection was insufficient to prevent disaster. Two weeks after England declared war on Germany in 1939, a U-boat torpedoed the English warship, HMS Royal Oak, killing over 800 sailors. This led to the construction of additional barriers between the islands, to be discussed in a later post. A memorial for this event was at St. Magnus Cathedral.

Bell and plaque commemorating the crew of the HMS Royal Oak is in St. Magnus Cathedral

We had another scotch whisky tasting scheduled on Saturday afternoon. We walked into the Highland Park visitor center just down the street from the cathedral and the host called to us by name! She was expecting us as we were the only folks signed up for that tasting. We had a nice video tour of the distillery and tasted two different whiskies.

The side of the Highland Park visitor center in Kirkwall

Unfortunately the Highland Park Distillery is closed for a major renovation, but we snapped a couple of pictures while driving past.

Continuing our tasting of Orcadian beverages, we stopped in for a beer at the Orkney Brewery visitor center just a few storefronts from the Highland Park visitor center. The bartender was friendly and we each had a bottle of their beer.