Friday 29th July
For Friday we headed off to the Neolithic Heartland of Orkney which has been given UNESCO World Heritage status. This includes Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and Maeshowe chambered cairn. We started off with a stop at Unstan tomb, at the southern end of Stenness Loch, which was free to enter. Ducking inside the entry passage we were pleased to find it light inside due to a modern glass roof as we didn't have a torch. There was lots of graffiti on one of the slabs - mostly from the 1890s!

We arrived early for the first of the free ranger talks at the Stones of Stenness, the earliest known henge in the British Isles, so had a wander around and took photos. It then started to drizzle which wasn't great given there was nowhere to shelter. Luckily it passed over quickly.

The talk was fantastic, lasting well over an hour and led by Keith, one of the Historic Scotland rangers. Knowledgeable, funny and clearly interested in his subject he took us through the discovery of the Barnhouse Neolithic village and the Stones of Stenness, speculating on what they might have been used for and their relation to each other. The thinking is that they were sites of celebration with lots of drinking, dancing and music - we liked the sound of that.


We then cycled up to the Ring of Brodgar for another ranger led talk, this time by Elaine. This is a larger ring than the Stenness with more intact stones and a huge ditch around it that was dug into bedrock using incredibly primitive tools. This was another excellent tour which also included a bit about the flowers and wildlife around the site.

Our final tour of the day was at the dig taking place at the Ness of Brodgar. This site was discovered in 2003 and since then a complex puzzle of buildings and structures has been uncovered. Some of the structures are huge and the stonework is very impressive with curving walls and tapering piers. We were guided around each of the structures by Keith and shown some of the finds; we were lucky to be one of the first to see a pottery figure in the shape of a person with holes for eyes, about an inch tall that had been discovered on the site 2 days ago.


I found the whole area fascinating, it must be a very exciting place to work for an archaeologist, and there is just so much being uncovered and waiting to be found.