Wildaboutorkney? I do believe so.

I learned so many things today that I'm not entirely sure if I can actually get them all down here without forgetting something, or worse - writing a bloody novel about my day.  

I woke up to -6C degree weather.  My tour guide, Michael - (who is 72 by the way, and looks to be about 50) - was amazing.  I was picked up from the Stromness Ferry Terminal, and we spent the day together.  The advantage to traveling in winter is that I got a private tour - the disadvantage, well...the snow, for starters. 

Our first site was the standing stones of Stenness.  A few miles outside of town, on a little farmside covered with sheep, stands three standing stones, the remnants of what was once a great oval of 11 standing stones.  These stones are made from the local sandstone, and were laid down nearly 1000 years prior to Stonehenge, making them the oldest standing stones in all of...Britain?  Or Europe...I cannae remember.

Over time, they have fallen down, and three stones are all that remains.  During the 18th century, the stone circle was referred to as the "Temple of the Moon" and when a man and a woman wanted to marry, they went inside the circle, and the woman prayed while the man looked on.  When that was done, they walked from Stenness to the Ring O' Brodgar (I'll get to this in a moment) which is not far away, and the man would pray to God while the woman looked on.  They referred to this standing circle as the "Temple of the Sun."

Once this ritual was over, the couple would return to Stenness, and head over to the Odin Stone, as it was called, which was a singular standing stone off to the side of Stenness, and it contained within it a circle carved into the centre of the stone.  The man and the woman would link their arms through the Odin stone, and then they became married for a year and a day.  If upon the ending of their year and day, they wished to separate - they could do so, or if they wished to remain married, they did the ritual all over again, and again, and again, each time becoming married for one year and one day.  The Odin Stone no longer stands today because a farmer some time ago, took it down.  The local people were outraged, and tried to have the law do something about it, but nothing could be done (all he did was move a rock, really) - but it is told that they made his life very hard from then on.

The Ring O' Brodgar was built around the same time, as a perfect circle of stones.  Originally numbering over 60, about 30 of them are still standing today.  And one of them even fell over because of a lightning strike!  The two standing circles were connected via a corridor of sorts, designed out of more standing stones, but only one of those stones remains standing today.

(I forgot to mention - the only place I could take photos of this was on the standing stones of Brodgar.  It says Bjorn!) 

The next site we went to was Maeshowe (think Mays-how). 

Maeshowe was built in approximately 2700BC, and is apparently Orkney's largest cairn (read: tomb).  The doorway to get into the cairn was I'd say about four and a half feet high, meaning we got to test out my extreme claustrophobia and amazon-like height to get into the chamber. 

 

 

Completely dark inside until the lights were turned on, Maeshowe has four chambers in total, including the main chamber.  Each little chamber is above ground height, and was thought to house the dead.  When the site was excavated, absolutely no artifacts were found, but something even better (in my eyes) was discovered.  In the 1000's when the Norse invaded, it is thought that they, or perhaps someone earlier, broke into the tomb through the roof and robbed the tomb of any of it's belongings.  The Norse, however - did leave something behind.  Futhark.  Futhark, written all over the walls.  I wasn't allowed to take any photographs due to the delicate nature of the findings, and 1000's of flashes over time can slowly degrade the writing, but photos can be found on the Maeshowe Website.

The inscriptions, in reality - are just Norse graffiti.  One section writes about how the author of the runes is the best, well written author in the world.  Another, written high up, quite literally just says "This was written high up" - more inscriptions on other walls talk about how beautiful and lovely the men's girlfriends were, and other things like that. 

But they were gorgeous.  So absolutely gorgeous.  I saw Norse age Futhark.  For realz.

After Maeshowe, we went to Skara Brae. 

Skara Brae is a preserved village on the other side of the island - though to be honest, I didn't get to see much of it because that half of the island was covered in snow.  I did, however - make a little snowman, have a snowball fight (with a 72 year old!), and eat some very tasty carrot soup at the tourist cafe nearby. 

The rest of the day went on much like this.  Because I was the only person on tour, and we had extra time, Michael took me down to many of the local beaches, and to Scapa Flow, and we watched the waves crash against the shore, and saw neat rocks, and visited the remains of a palace that belonged to an Earl in the 16th century.  Today, it's used by children as a large grassy area to play football (soccer).  We probably spent a half hour at one of the beaches, looking for a little seashell the size of my pinky fingernail.  We never did find it (but I grabbed you some very, very pretty sand, mom!)