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Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn, Orkney

We’ve been doing so much I’m struggling to keep up with blogging about it all! After visiting Grain Earth House, and attempting to video the experience, we went to another, more impressive chambered cairn at Cuween Hill. If you know your archeology you may have heard of the aisle of dogs – that’s in this one, although I wasn’t sure which of the various chambers that referred to (it’s dark, there’s not much space, and I’m slightly claustrophobic, so I didn’t linger long). We had to crawl on hands and knees to get inside, but could stand up in the first chamber – I wasn’t brave enough to climb into the others!

I had another go at videoing this one. We took our own lighting – without which it would have been completely dark. Although the film doesn’t look more impressive than the last one, I did some slightly more advanced editing to create it. Here’s the result.

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Earl’s Palace

There have been quite a few Earls of Orkney, with marvellous names such as Thorfinn the Mighty, Thorfinn Skullsplitter, Sigurd the Stout, Harald Smooth Tongue, Harald the Old, Harald the Young, Einar Wry-mouth… Inheritance rules meant that rather than the title and all the dosh going to the eldest son, all siblings got a share. All the lads became Earls, all the lassies were also considered of high status, although they only got half shares of land and wealth.

Lots of Earls meant lots of palaces. The one in these photos is the best preserved (of those we’ve seen anyway) and located in Kirkwall, opposite the Bishop’s Palace.

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Broch of Gurness

A broch is a very old kind of big round Scottish castle structure, with immensely thick double walls whixh have a narrow passageway between them. Nobody seems to know what that’s for – it might be an early form of cavity wall insulation. People lived in brochs and it seems likely they were defensive structures.

We’ve visited quite a few brochs and like them a lot. The one at Gurness is unusual both in that it’s not isolated, but surrounded by smaller stone houses and other structures (a small village really) and in the fact that it’s divided up into rooms inside. There’s even a loo!

Lots of interesting items were found inside the broch of Gurness, including some amazing, and huge, brooches. These are in the museum in Kirkwall, which is fascinating. We spent hours there one rainy day – and didn’t photograph a thing!

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A confession

The shells in Wednesday’s post were not, as I claimed, groatie buckies. I should have been suspicious when I found some so easily… Anyway, I have now found one – it’s the small stripey one, shown alongside one of whatever the others are to give an idea of scale.

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Skara Brae

The first, orangey coloured, photos are from a replica house, which visitors could enter to examine the contents. The rest are of the real thing which you’re not usually allowed to go into, in order to preserve the buildings – but can see very well from the surrounding paths.

There’s a lot I could say about Skara Brae, but I’m just going to focus on the fact that this village is over 5,000 years Old. That’s older than Stone Henge and the Pyramids. The people who built it lived in communities, traded with other countries, made jewellery and decorated pots. There’s a lot that isn’t known because the settlement is so old that very little other than stone survives, but it’s very likely they made art and music, and told stories. Their lives would have been very different from ours, but I can’t help thinking the people themselves would have been much like us.

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Bishop’s Palace

The bishop in Kirkwall would have had a longer commute to work than I do, but not by much. You can see St Magnus Cathedral from his palace, and vice versa. Even I wouldn’t have needed a cup of tea on arrival if I’d had one just before leaving home – although I’m fairly sure tea wasn’t an option back then.

We’re very much enjoying Orkney. As far as we can see there are only two downsides – the wind (cold and doesn’t let up much) and the lack of an LPG filling pump. The van needs gas for heating, hot water, the fridge, cooking and, most vital of all, the kettle! It’s OK though as we have a cunning plan.

Some of the positives of Orkney include the beauty and drama of the landscape, very friendly people, loads of historic sites to visit, great campervan facilities and wonderful park ups, lots of wildlife especially birds, plenty of bakeries and tea rooms, great walks, a decent number of ships for Gary to photograph, loads of wild flowers… It’s amazing I’ve found time to write, but that short commute to work helps and I’m making progress with the novel.

patsy

On Orkney

We intend to see as much of Orkney as possible during our trip. One of our first stops was St Mary’s Hope on the island of South Ronaldsay (reached by a causeway). We photographed a ferry, than had lunch watching ducklings bobbing about in the bay. I think they’re eider ducks.

After that, we headed down to Burwick, which is the southern tip of Orkney. The land you can see in the distance in one shot is mainland Scotland. We did part of the coastal walk towards Sandwick, which is incredibly beautiful. Then we photographed St Mary’s church, before finding a place to park the mobile writing retreat / campervan for the night – and yes, I did do some writing!

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On the way

Here are some photos taken, at RHS Harlow Carr, on our way up north.


And here are some taken at the nearby Brimham Rocks, (and not Birnham stones or Brinkham Rocks, as we’ve been calling it!)

If words are more your thing than pictures, you might like this book of mine, which is currently on sale for 99p / 99c

patsy

Heading north

Actually I’m already quite a way north, but these pictures were taken at Stowe Gardens on the way up. They’re writing related, because I’ve included some of The Muses, and Shakespeare – but mainly because I’m not just swanning around in the campervan. I’m going to do A LOT of writing, when we get where we’re going.