tomb raider
My first full day on Orkney, which I spent in pursuit of Neolithic delights.
Started with Maeshowe, a world heritage site in which you cannot take pictures. My B&B host said it can book full pretty quickly, so I went there first in case I had to book something later and go back. But one of the primary joys of offseason travel is that almost nothing is booked to capacity (except restaurants that are popular with the locals).
I then started driving towards two standing stone circles that are in close proximity on the island. On the way, I realied that the island is fairly littered with standing stones, many just in the middle of a random field with sheep milling around at their bases.
The only 2 hours it actually rained today began pretty much as soon as I parked at the first stone circle, the Stones of Steness. I will go back tomorrow to check out the nearby excavated village that you can walk to. I love that visitors have real access to get up close with these sites. For the most part, people seem to be pretty well-behaved around them. most of the damage seems to have been done by Victorian archeologists, at least if the Maeshowe tour guide is accurate.
After leaving those stones, I traveled a bit further up the road to the Ring of R-- (to be edited later with the correct name). Raining even harder at this point, so for the first time I wore what I am calling my real coat.
Graffiti, both Viking and modern, on one of the stones.
Later that day, while starting to think about dinner, I passed a brown tourist atraction sign pointing to two nearby hilltop cairns. In search of one last adventure in the waning day ( and for a bit of exercise before yet another meal after a day of mostly driving around), I followed the signs to the
which had been mentioned by the Maeshowe guide as being a smaller but more intact version of that site. She had also mentioned that one should have a torch before going there, because this one might be low.
She might word her warning more strongly, as it was completely dead.
She had also warned that one should be prepared for dirty knees, which was accurate given the size of the passage into the cairn (as seen from inside the dark tomb!).
Ever have they grown on the tombs of my fathers...
I really want to post a video here, but I think it must wait until I either get to a real computer, or pay LJ for the privilege.