Orkney - Home of Standing Stones
fuelled first and foremost by our desire to see the ‘original’ standing stones. Archaeologists believe that the culture and ceremony of creating circles of standing stones amid a henge (the circular earthwork) originated in Orkney.
The remains of hundreds of these circles can be found all over the UK, but evidence suggests that their construction and use started up north about 5000 years ago and moved south over a period of a couple thousand years.
So over the skarpa flow, we go, to Orkney and to see the oldest stones.
But first a trip to Maes Howe, an evocative burial chamber built around 2800BC. The entryway to the dark dome aligns perfectly with the sunset of the midwinter sun – perhaps an ancient indicator of when the long Orkney winter was spinning towards summer. From shelter taken by Viking’s in the 1100’s, the tomb is covered with ‘graffiti’; beautiful runes and silly rhymes remind me of today’s street art/street tag disparity.
Just up the road from Maes Howe is the Stenness Standing Stone Circle and Henge. Built in approximately 3100BC and thought to be the oldest standing stones and henge site in the UK, the Stenness Stones are impressive to say the least.
We arrive (for the first of three visits) just before sunset. The looming clouds and fading light frame the dark, strong stones that stand six metres tall. There once were 12, but time and an angry Victorian farmer (who took to the stones with an axe, fed up with tourists and spiritualists coming onto his land), have reduced the number to four plus an entrance causeway.
Thinly sliced, at only 300mm thick in some places, it is almost surprising that the stones have stood for so long. But the awe and presence of the stones in this place is felt. And it is not surprising that the ancient Orcadians who (are thought) to have used this place for meeting and rituals, through to the modern day tourists, historians and locals, have treasured and then saved this place for me to see.
Just up the road we head, as we are losing light and need to visit the Ring of Brodgar. At 104 metres in diameter, this stone circle is the third largest in the British Isles. Today, an imposing 27 of the original 60 stones remain and I agree with Hugh Millar, who in 1846 said the stones are ‘like an assemblage of ancient druids, mysteriously stern and invincibly silent and shaggy’.
The place is beautiful, sprawling and prominent. Clearly it was somewhere of importance for the ancient people, and with at least 13 burial mounds in the vicinity it was indeed - thought to have been a place of worship. With limited excavations conducted here (archaeologists have most recently had their attention on the Ness of Brodgar Neolithic settlement further again up the road), the age of the site remains a mystery, but if estimates of 2500 – 2000BC are correct, the Ring of Brodgar is the most ‘recent’ construction in Neolithic Orkney.
Although bigger, and (judging by the muddy footprints) more popular, I personally feel somehow more connected to the more ancient Stenness Stones. I know being connected to stones seems ridiculous in 2017, but maybe there is some ancient Orcadian in me.
Recent evidence suggests that the stones in both of these circles came from various places around the island. To me, this is maybe the most important realisation of these massive feats of human ingenuity and strength.
Bringing a literal piece of your corner of the world (or island) to a place you hold dear – to meet with friends, worship your god, or remember a lost loved one – is such a primal way of keeping connected to home. Maybe this is why every time I see a eucalyptus tree I run to grab a leaf and crush it in my hands, smelling the ever so faint smell of my home.
