Category: Archealogic sites of Orkney

Ahoy, Hoy!

Thur, May 16th 2019

Knowing that we will be spending a long time on Hoy, and because it is definitely cooler today, we have oatmeal for breakfast before heading off to catch the ferry at Houton. We’re on our way, and even before we dock in Lyness it is immediately clear that Hoy has a very different geology from the other islands. There are real hills here and the land lies differently. https://www.scottishgeology.com/best-places/hoy-orkney/

Catching the ferry

We start off widdershins around the coast stopping, of course, for coffee and scones at the first little restaurant we see. Disappointing it is, the coffee is weak and scones unremarkable. We continue on over the top of the island to the town of Rackwick, right on the bay at Rora Head, at the end of the divide between the two high hills of Hoy. The Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack, is nearby, but not nearby enough! so we walk south instead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_Hoy

We first encounter a building which had been a shepherd’s bothy but is now a hostel where today a half dozen bright orange tents have been pitched. Boy scouts we’re told. We enter, there is a peat fire burning and a very rudimentary communal kitchen; overall it looks much like the farmhouse at Kirbister or Corrigall except for the intrusion of a number of well-worn mid century chairs.

    Then we follow a sheep trail right along the beach side and look out on to the still-brown heather covered hillsides. It’s very windy. We are all bundled up and the trail is tight so we don’t walk very far and soon turn back first to see a bit more of the town and then to eat our lunch in the car. (We are repeatedly glad to have our boxy, roomy Tepec as it is far too windy to sit outside today.)

    This is the Nature Week in Orkney and so on our drive back toward the east side of the island we stop where there is an eagle watch in progress. White eagles have been reintroduced and this pair, nesting high up on the hillside, have two chicks. We all look through the telescopes set up by the roadside but truthfully I can’t say that I have seen them. This is the same place where we walk up to the Dwarvie Stane. There is a small group with a tour guide so we informally join them to listen. Why it is there, how it got there and what it was used for or meant, even its age is mostly conjecture.

    https://www.orkney.com/listings/dwarfie-stane

    When they call it Dwarf’s Stone you can see why. It’s pretty tight, trying to get in to see the two hand-hewn chambers

    The afternoon is passing quickly. We come across a sad little gravestone with its story of a young unmarried woman who killed herself after becoming pregnant and being shunned by the villagers.

    On our coastal drive we see a bay filled with fish farming sites.

    We stop at another tea room cum gift shop, Emily’s, and indulge in more cappuccino. (Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s wrong to drink cappuccino after breakfast!) and this one was very much better. Then we try to find some of the WWII sites–Lyness was the home base of the Royal Navy–but the museum is closed. We do find the building that was the communications center (Wee Fae). I’m sorry to once again miss seeing some of this history. English TV shows like A Family at War and When the Boat Comes In with their references to Scapa Flow have always fascinated me.

    https://hoyorkney.com/attractions/hoy-history/wartime-heritage/hoy-wwii-archaeology/explore-wwii-hoy-and-walls/

    But now it’s time to get back on the ferry and it’s home again. Lynn’s pork stew has been slow-cooking all day–its aroma hits us even before we open the door! It’s delicious and very welcome after a day of bruising winds. Later we watch the rest of RuPaul’s Drag Race to see who won.

    Eleanor and the Butcher

    Wed, May 15th 2019

    Jen has noticed that there will be a guided tour of the standing stones and Barnhouse village this morning so we head out for Stenness because although we’ve been there numerous times we figure there’s more to learn. Good call! Eleanor MacLeod, who hales originally from Lewis (in the Hebrides), is an excellent enthusiastic guide, full of stories and folk traditions. She also clarifies for us what a henge is; many think it is the ring of stones, but no, it is the ditch and earthworks which may or may not include standing stones. For more on the village check out this link: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/barnhouse/

    And you can find some of the traditions about the standing stones at this link: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/standingstones/

    They’ve come to listen to Eleanor MacLeod!
    • Jen at the largest stone
    • Barnhouse village

    Jen has also checked the tide times and so we then head to Birsay, It’s low tide, there is hardly any water at all and so no seals appear and we quickly walk across to the Brough and stay for a while though we don’t make the trek up to the lighthouse and cliffs beyond.

    In Dounby we find the butcher shop open and are truly relieved. We had worried that perhaps it had closed. She’s the same bubbly person we’ve met before and we buy lambchops, porkchops, a shoulder of lamb and of course home-raised bacon. Back at No. 10 Jill makes lambchops for dinner accompanied by new potatoes and butter, peas and homemade mint sauce. Yum indeed! I make a sort of tomato-garlic melange. The weather has been beautiful for days now but in the afternoon the wind picks up, it’s cooler and the water in the bay is very choppy. Tomorrow we’re off to Hoy.

    Rousay

    Mon., May 13th 2019

    It’s a miracle–another gorgeous day! We drive up to Tingwall to catch the ferry to Rousay, a half-hour trip northeast across Eynhallow Sound from Mainland. There are a lot of sites, over 100, on this small island–its nickname is Egypt of the north–but first it’s scones, clotted cream, strawberry-rhubarb jam and excellent coffee at the Crafthub in Trumland before our 14-mile trip along the island’s only road. Clearly the Crafthub is a social hub for the whole island’s 200 or so residents. We head off clockwise, exploring Taversoe Tuick burial cairn and Blackhammer Cairn.

    • Scones at the Crafthub

    This link will take you to a humorous but good article on the sights and sites of Rousay: https://must-see-scotland.com/rousay Good photos too.

    We don’t walk up the long hill to the Knowe of Yarso but drive on to Midhowe cairn and broch, the most visited site on this island. The original roof of the cairn is gone but this 90 foot long, chambered burial site has been totally enclosed within a hangar-like building with walkways around and over it. Because we can see everything from above and don’t have to crawl about on our knees we really get a good picture of a chambered cairn.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 220px-Midhowe_burials.jpg

    Just a few yards away is the broch from a later period, complete up to a height of about 10, 12 feet.

    “Midhowe Broch is one of at least nine brochs that stand along the banks of narrow, dangerous Eynhallow Sound in Orkney. It’s in an excellent state of preservation, especially its stone internal fittings. A water tank, fireplace and room partitions are all visible.” (from Historic Environment)

    From there we walk along the beach to the several iron age and medieval sites–a church, the remains of a hall. The link above describes these ruins well as well as giving good photographs. From here we can see Eynhallow (Holy Island) and to the south the broch of Gurness on Mainland.

    The church on Eynhallow

    After eating our BLTs back at our car we complete the circuit of the island. We watch seals cavorting on the Saviskaill Beach and arrive back at the ferry slip with enough time to visit the Rousay Cultural Centre, do a bit of beach-combing and watch a large sailboat dock with 14 musicians on board. They have been traveling around the islands for several weeks and will be playing this evening at the Crafthub, but unfortunately we can’t stay. We’re told they will be playing at the Reel in Kirkwall on the weekend so we’ll try then.

    We catch the ferry at 5:30, pick up a few things for tonight’s dinner (fresh tagliatelle and homemade sauce), Jen and I break open the bottle of single malt I bought yesterday and we all watch Queer Eye before heading off to bed.

    Ruins Neolithic & Norse

    Sun, May 12th 2019

    Jill is fighting a cold and sleeps in until 9 o’clock and we’re happy to just sit back and enjoy our coffee. By 10 though we’ve pulled ourselves together and we head off to Orphir, south of Stenness, on the road to Kirkwall. We visit again the Orkneyinga Saga Centre but skip the short film we had watched on our first trip, then walked to the Earl’s Bu, ruins of a Norse farmhouse and home to several of the earls who figure in the Orkneyinga Saga and finally to the Round Kirk of which only the apse remains.

    The apse

    https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/earls-bu-and-church-orphir/

    We’re off then to Waulkmill Bay, this time properly shod in our new wellies. I’m sure that I saw a rock I’d seen two years before, coveted then but not taken because it was too big. Lynn and I aren’t quite as crazed by now but we all pick up a few to take back to the cottage. https://www.orkney.com/listings/waulkmill

    A quick trip to Tesco to return some unneeded olive oil–there’s plenty on hand in our kitchen–and then we head home for lunch, our first BLTs.

    We sit and knit for a bit but the weather is beautiful and here in Orkney, in May, one doesn’t waste warm, sunny, windless days so we head for the Ring of Brodgar. We can’t walk into the Ring! Victim of erosion damage, almost certainly caused by climate change, and perhaps too much tourism, the Ring is now cordoned off and we can only walk the exterior perimeter. We drive next to the Stones of Stenness and the neolithic Barnhouse village. https://www.orkneyjar.com/history/barnhouse

    The Ring and the Standing Stones

    We’ve never gone to the Unstan burial cairn so that’s next on our agenda. The cairn is located in a privately owned farm and we meet the owner. We crawl in and see the five burial chambers. There is a swallow-like bird etched on the lintel of one chamber. https://www.orkneyjar.com/history/tombs/unstan/index.html

    Back home we have a delicious chicken soup that has slow-cooked all day, watch a Tiny House episode (though Jill is completely engrossed in her BTS K-pop videos) and make plans for a trip to Rousay.

    Tomb of the Eagles & Incidentally an Orkney Chair

    It has completely slipped my mind until now to tell you about Lynn and her chair. Three years ago we spent time looking at several studios making the traditional hooded Orkney chair because Lynn had her heart set on buying one. Ultimately she decided the chair and its shipping cost too much and said no but she knew she really loved the work of Jackie and Marlene Miller, owners of the Scapa Crafts Orkney Chairs workshop.  https://www.scapacrafts.co.uk/

    A couple of days ago she nonchalantly said, “Let’s just stop in again and look at the chairs,” and this time she was ready! In minutes she was getting her bespoke chair designed just for her with hood and drawer, to be delivered late this coming autumn!

    Three years ago we all tried out  the Millers’ chairs

    Here’s one under construction

    Wed, May 3rd

    It’s a beautiful warm almost windless sunny day. Three years ago we had decided to skip the Tomb of the Eagles, mostly because when we got there the wind was howling, the spitting rain was close to becoming sleet and the mile-long walk to the site was unappealing. Today however is perfect so we head out to South Ronaldsay, the most southern Orkney island and reachable by car over the famous Churchill Barriers–impressive World War II defenses against the German U-boats.

    In the visitors’ centre our guides Lily and Jo fill us in on a lot of interesting facts about the two privately owned sites here, one stone age, one bronze, and the people who built and used them. Then we walk out toward the cliff edge. There are some excellent photos if you follow this link:

    https://www.tomboftheeagles.co.uk/

    The bronze age site is small and to the untrained eye not particularly interesting but the chambered cairn further on, built five millenia ago,  is impressive. The tomb was used for about 800 years and contained the remains of some 340 bodies as well as the skeletons and talons of numerous sea eagles, possibly a totemic animal for the local population. Artifacts–bones, tools, pottery–can be seen at the museum in the visitors’ centre.

    Michael emerges

    Jen and Jill in the cairn

    We eat lunch there and then drive to the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery; we particularly love Leila and daughter Jo Thomson’s large wall tapestries

    and then continue on to village of St Margaret’s Hope where we are eager to revisit the Workshop and Loft Gallery, an artist cooperative which specializes in knitware and other Orcadian crafts. Both Lynn and I buy sweaters. Mine is from The Quernstone shop in Stromness and is half silk, half merino wool.  https://www.workshopandloftgallery.co.uk/

    A bit of grocery shopping at Tesco, a quick trip to Dounby and Alison Moore’s gallery where Lynn and I pick up our moonstone rings and then it’s back to Stromness where Michael makes a delicious rice and black bean dinner served with a salad and for dessert, ice cream. Michael and Jen go for a walk, some of us knit and later there’s a game of Spite and Malice.