Day 9 Underground village and Viking graffiti

First a comment about driving in Scotland.  You are on the left side of the road.  Tom, our driver is excellent, he has made few mistakes, and so far, our car in intact.  More of a challenge are the narrow roads.  Many/most are one lane!   But, what you find every 50-100 yards are ‘passing places’.  They are used extensively.

Today we investigate the western half of Orkney Island.  Curious, it is called “the mainland” by Orkadians.  The ‘islands’ are composed of an unknown (to us) number of islands; Orkney is the largest and the hub, so it is the ‘mainland’.  Again, a subtle note of individuality from Scotland proper.

Our first discovery of the day is Skara Brae.   Built around 3100BC and discovered in 1850 after a nasty windstorm exposed the ancient ruins of this subterranean village.  What remains in a fraction of what used to be there.  Although now close to the ocean, it was determined that when it was built, it was on the shore of a fresh water loch.   But with the rising Atlantic, after 800 years of occupation, the people left and most of the village has eroded away.

  The Neolithic people lived like rabbits in warrens—hunkered down in subterranean homes, connected by tunnels and lit only by whale-oil lamps.  Each home had a central hearth for heat and cooking, side ‘bed boxes’ for sleeping, cubby holes to store food and supplies and shelves to display or hold important useful items.  All in stone, very heavy stone, all cut and placed without any metal tools. 

Although we consider the Neoliths as primitive people, flowing between and under these subterranean homes they had rerouted a nearby stream so that it functioned not too different from a modern sewer system.

Next we visited the Ring of Brodgar, 2600BC, (still 500 years older than Stonehenge).  A football field across, and of the 60-80 original stones, 27 still stand. 

We finish our day at Maeshowe.  The finest chambered tomb north of the Alps.  It was built around 3500BC.  A simple mound from the outside, but stunning ancestor-worship rooms on the inside. 

  As far as we can determine it remained untouched until the Vikings stumbled on it in the 12^th century when a group of them holed up in it for three days to wait out a storm.  Besides drinking, they spent their time writing on the walls!  Most of the graffiti was carved by Ofram Sigurdsson.  He had lots to say.  No pictures on the inside, sorry.

Well, except for this one.  Our guide told us 'no pictures', and Gloria
promptly took this one.  We are in the 30 foot passage way into the main
room.  Above us is a 20 ton carved slab.  At the entrance is a one ton
door.  Archaeologists  don't know how they carved and set the
ceiling nor how they balanced the door so that a child can open
and close it.  Amazing.

                                                                                      Yesnaby Stack