Orkney, Day 3

The first stop of the day was to the Stones of Stenness. This is an amazing place. Its, sadly, not very complete, but the stones that are there are huge. They tower over Mike and he is tall (well... at least he is tall to me). Historic Scotland has placed cements markers where they believe the missing stones were placed, which is very helpful when trying to imagine what this wonderful place once looked like. This stone circle is amazing now, I can only imagine how wonderful it once was.
There is a small Stone Age village a stones throw away from here. If I could have lived in the Stone Age, that's where I would have liked to have my house. Stones of Stenness in one direction, the Ring of Brogar in another, surrounded by lochs and beautiful scenery...

The next stop of the day was to the Ring of Brogar. This circle is quite large, so obviously has more stones. But where at Stenness some of the stones are actually missing, most of the stone bases are still here. Some of the Stenness stones are missing due to new constructions being built. In many places (Roman Forum, old churches, here, etc.), when the building was no longer in use, people took the stones from there to build new things since it was easier than going to the quarry. The beginnings of recycling I suppose. Sucks for the rest of us who would like to see the place as it once was, but at least we get to see something!

Since we were out fairly early, we had these stone circles all to ourselves. It was wonderful... we could explore the circle, stones, and more. This circle also has lots of other stuff. It is imagined that at least one of the hills is a burial tomb. Maybe the religiosity of the Ring of Brogar kept the stones from being recycled...
To continue on with the Stone Age theme, our next stop was Skara Brae, one of the many Stone Age villages on Orkney, but the best example here. It was amazing, and all I could think of the whole time we were there is The Flintstones. The visitors center at this ancient monument is wonderful. It tells you all about what is known and what is supposed about the people of the village, has wonderful artifacts, and great interactive displays. No wonder it has won awards. Then you start walking on the path to the village, and step into a recreation of one of the house and the covered walkways that would have led you to the house. Very neat. Then all along the path, there are stone signs commemorating big moments in history to give you an idea of just how old this village is. It is incredible that all 3 of the sites we saw this morning were around 5000 years old. And they are still here today! Not all intact, but after 5000 years that's to be expected.

We decided to take a break from the Stone Age theme of the morning to take a walk looking for Puffins. The Puffins had recently been sighted on the mainland off Marwick Head. So, we headed to the cliffs and started walking. I was determined to see a Puffin - I wanted the hat pin. Unfortunately, the Puffins did not want to cooperate AT ALL. We saw lots of birds, but none of them Puffins. The one bird I really, really wanted to see... Maybe next time... At least the walk was lovely and the sun was shining.

Now back to Stone Age times... Maeshowe is a wonderful little chambered cairn. You have to book a tour time before you go though since the actual chamber is so small. The Tomb of the Eagles was smaller, but it is a ways out of the main area, this was right smack in the middle of it all. We were told by the nice (and very informative) tour guide that this is the best example that they have of this type of Stone Age construction. And it was amazing how it was constructed. The door lines up with the winter solstice and lights up the chamber. There are web cams set up in the tomb so that you can see it. This cairn also has Viking graffiti! And you can clearly see it all over the stonework inside. It was really interesting to see all the runes and pictures, and hear all about these old messages.

The final stop of the day was to the Brough of Birsay. (Another spot where Puffins sightings are likely... we didn't see them there either.) You can only get here when the tide is out, or by boat. A walkway is provided for anyone wishing to make the walk out to the little island, which I suppose is quite nice, but I would have LOVED to play on the rocks too. I think Mike liked that the walkway was there, so that I couldn't play in the rocks. That way I didn't accidentally maim myself by slipping and we didn't end up with a suitcase full of rocks. I still peered into the tide pools though. So, we started walking out to this old settlement, on the wonderful walkway provided for us. In theory its great, in reality its a slimy slippery path of cement. We both nearly broke ourselves before we realized just how slippery the path was. After our slow walk out to the island, we were able to explore the settlement. This one still had the foundation of the church present, but most of the old houses were just slumps in the ground now. It was quite interesting to see, especially after our travels in England. A friend of ours took us to an old settlement in the National Park and kept pointing to hallows in the ground and talking about houses, etc. At that point I could not imagine how he would know that that may have been some one's house. Now it all makes sense.