Report: Day 1 of Orkney
I have the first lot of Orkney photos from Becca so I will write a bit about those now and then add more when I have more, as a few places are missing from these. I thought I had better start writing now while I have the inclination, rather than letting myself forget the names of all the places, but this will be better when I have my own pictures to add.
So, this is Day 1 for now!
This is the group at John O' Groats, one of the most touristy places in Britain! It isn't *quite* the most northern point of the British mainland, but it is where you start from if you are going to undertake the 874 mile journey south to Land's End, its southern counterpart. All there is really are touristy shops selling "Highland Toffee" and little models of Nessie, and the passenger ferry to Orkney goes from there. We took the car ferry from a little bit further round the coast at Gill's Bay but spent a good couple of hours at Groats, stretching our legs and enjoying the sea air after being cooped up in the minibus since 6am- that was about 9 hours.
The group was as follows-
Top row: Chris (Bob's mate who tagged along because he is doing archaeological illustraton at uni soon), Rebecca (the Year 12 who is one of us really), Nic (amazing lass, coming to Manchester as well) and me (clinging on to the signpost for dear life)
Middle, in the hat: Justine (being "different" as always!)
Bottom: Fiona (Mr Chester's girlfriend, archaeologist and geophysicist), Mr Chester (fantastic archaeology and history teacher), Bob (only boy in the archaeology class, going to Oxford to study it, going out with Emily) and Emily (known her since we were 3, one of my best mates, crazy midge-hater)
Behind the camera: Andrew (childhood mate of Mr C, book conservator at the Bodleian in Oxford, another tagger-along)
The very first place we visited on our first day in Orkney was the Italian Chapel, on the little island Lamb Holm. During the Second World War a number of Italian prisoners of war were brought to Orkney to build the Churchill Barriers, causeways designed to restrict access to the bay known as Scapa Flow, which had been proved vulnerable when a German U-Boat sunk the HMS Royal Oak there in 1939. The Italian prisoners lived in Camp 60 and they attempted to make it as homely as possible during their stay there, in part by constructing this incredible chapel. It is made of 2 Nissen huts joined together, which they lined with plasterboard and painted to look the inside of any other church. They made everything themselves, saving up to buy materials that could not be donated by the enthusiastic camp commandant, but it was still not fully completed by the end of the war. The driving force behind the project, Domenico Chiocchetti, remained in order to finish work. Interestingly, the prisoners who were repatriated close to the end of the war came to stay in Skipton, the town where I went to school, for a few months! I took many more photos of the chapel but this is the sanctuary, inside.
This is the interior of the Tomb of the Eagles at Isbister, the next place we visited. You can get full information about this amazing place on their website but I will explain it briefly! This chambered cairn is an estimated 5000 years old and was discovered by accident by a farmer who was out looking for stone to use as fence posts. When it was finally excavated, the bones of about 350 people were found inside as well as the remains of Sea Eagles, in particular their talons. It is this distinguishing factor that gives the tomb its name, as it is believed the eagle would have been the "totem" of the group of people who used it. The daughter of the man who discovered the tomb, Kathleen, was very pleased to find out we were archaeology students and gave us some special priveleges, allowing us to handle some artefacts that most people would not be allowed to, such as stone tools, shell beads and even one of the skulls that was discovered- if anyone was so inclined (we weren't, especially after Emily kept dropping things!) The tomb itself had to be crawled into, or slid into on a little "tray on wheels" and I am sure I will have some pictures of that very soon, I know Mr Chester took one of me sliding gracefully in on my back...
Also on the first day, we visited Mine Howe, one of the most mysterious monuments I have ever seen! It is basically 29 stone steps that lead down into the ground, finishing in a deep and very scary shaft, built during the Iron Age and most likely with a ritual purpose. The climb down the steps was nerve-wracking as the steps themselves are extremely narrow and slippy and the walls are damp, providing no handholds or support so you are left depending completely on the handrail. I'm sure there are plenty of pictures of this (again, I think Chezza was bullying me that day so there should be one of me disappearing into it, looking very nervous) but that site has a few on it anyway. There are 2 galleries inside that could fit a person in, though why anyone would want to try this is beyond me!
Next to the mound of Mine Howe has been discovered a metal-working site, thought to be of a later date and probably Pictish. We spoke to the Site Manager Alistair and he said they had found human remains there, a very unusual state of affairs. They found a girl about my age a few weeks ago and had uncovered another body the day before we visited, with only 3 days left on site before their funding stopped! For anyone who never seen an archaeological excavation in progress (I tend to forget that not everybody has!) this is pretty typical, especially all the grubby post-grad students wearing mad clothes-
Our next stop was a cairn called Unstan Howe, a very important place to archaeologists because a new type of round-bottomed pottery, specific to this area was discovered there, which is now known as Unstanware. There was something else cool about this place for us though- See that moss-covered upright slab on the left? That had grafitti on the top corner of it done by a girl from Keighley, my town- in 1890! I have a closer photo of that to show you later.
Becca took this one of us standing on top of the mound, silhouetted against the sun, and I think it looks fantastic.
One of the most beautiful places we went to- if not THE most beautiful- was the Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle which, when first built between 2000BC and 2500BC, consisted of 60 megaliths. Only 36 are still standing now but it is still an impressive and inspirational site. (Again, I have loads more photos of this monument, how could I resist shooting it from every angle?!)
And the thing that made this visit so special was when Bob took out his bagpipes and began to play. I get tears in my eyes just from remembering how I felt then, standing in the heather with the stones surrounding me, listening to such haunting music with some of my best friends. Even the infamous “Scottish midgies” couldn’t disturb that moment.
The final place we visited that day was the nearby Stones of Stenness, built a little earlier than the Ring of Brodgar and on a smaller scale. As you can see, we couldn’t resist “molesting” (not my word, I call it “hugging”) the stones!
I think that just about concludes Tuesday- sadly, Becca has no pictures of our entertainment that evening- ie, Chris playing guitar and us all having a sing along in our tent, hiding from the midgies, but I do and will put it in later. And if you thought we did a lot on Day 1, just you wait for Day 2!
Still to come: Rousay Island, including Mid Howe, Mid Howe Broch, Lairo, the Westness Walk, Blackhammer, Tournes Tuick and the Brough of Birsay.