Hey Blog! Last post of the Orkney series.
Skara Brae, the Neolithic village lost to time, was, when discovered in 1850, one of the greatest discoveries of Stone Age archaeology, and still is. It remains a site of wonder, and we need to remind ourselves that these dwellings probably occurred all over Britain, it is merely that only those built in the hardwearing stone survived – and stone was only used when wood was scarce or simply not there at all – as it was in Orkney. That takes nothing away from the sense that you are walking where others walked, you are looking into the homes of those who could be our ancestors, and that this place is about 5000 years old – if every generation issue offspring at around 25, that’s about our 200-times great-grannies! The small, carefully built huts show a certain crude, refined beauty; it has lost some clarity by being buried under the sand for 5 millennia, but the structure of the site remains. My one pity was you weren’t allowed to go in, but nonetheless it was a very special visit. The museum was also good, and showed you many of the more portable things that would get blown away from the site (Orkney is windy – we were lucky to have good weather most of the time)!
There’s also a good beach on the bay of Skaill for skimming stones – I managed somewhere in the region of 15 bounces, though I have a way to go to get to the 40-something bounce world record!
Our last two nights were spent in Kirkwall. Though this may seem incredible, Orkney was once property of the kings of Norway, and had stronger ties to that country than Scotland! Also in its history, it was dominated by two rival, joined powers – bishops, and earls. Both built great palaces, one earl even attempting to join his extended palace to the preexisting bishop’s palace, and the result we went to see! They are recent in terms of Skara Brae, as they were only constructed in the last millennium, but when they were whole and not, as they are today, in ruins, they would have looked stunning. As the weather was fine, the ground had dried out, and made the remnants of the former formal gardens out the back stand out as green lines on yellow grass. This was interesting, as we could trace the layout exactly to the example on the signboard! I turns out a local legal building is situated just behind where the connecting wall would have been, evidently carrying on the trend of important business being carried out at that site for half a thousand years! The tower on one of the palaces provides spectacular views of the whole town, which in the past would have been very different – the sea came in further and the buildings were smaller. The only thing to rival the height of the two palaces was the cathedral, which we also went into. It is truly spectacular, beautifully made and with a long history.
An interesting fact of local history is the Ba’ game, started from the cathedral green and a remnant of the communal football games that were once widespread across the UK. Shrovetide football, an almost identical game, is played in Ashbourne, near where we live; there are occasional villages which do a similar thing, but these are all that survive to this day. It sounds very fun, but very boisterous – all the houses have barriers across the doors and windows to prevent the ball going through!
I would like to go back to Orkney. It’s more than anyone can say, a land with a long history which you can see, because those who made it left it for us to find. You have to see it to feel it, and there will be more discoveries, so we will hopefully go back one day!