Before we get to Orkney, I’d like to share a bit of momentous news that was just recently announced — on Nov 30, 2024, I’ll be inducted into the Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame for services to the Scottish music community. This is a great honor, particularly since it is rarely given to non-Scots. A page about it is located here.
We boarded the ferry from Gills Bay, about three miles west of John o’ Groats, for the one-hour-plus boat ride to St Margaret’s Hope in Orkney. This is not the closest place to the Scottish mainland, as you can see on the maps below, but it did take us to a convenient harbor.
On the left, you see a map including all of the Orkney islands, and at the bottom, a sliver of the mainland. The dotted red line encircles Scapa Flow the body of water surrounded by the islands, and full of a great deal of history.
To the right is a close-up of the map, with the dark line showing the route our ferry took, and the dotted line the road we followed to the east coast of that island, South Ronaldsay, where we came to a special ancient site called the Tomb of the Eagles.
At the bottom is a view from the ferry.
To get to St. Margaret’s Hope, we crossed the Pentland Firth, that stretch of water joining the Atlantic and the North Sea, which we talked about last time, with its competing currents, a whirlpool and other features dangerous to sailors. None of this seemed to affect the steady ride on our ferry, though there were patches of water smooth as glass, alternating with rough water — visually, at least.
Careful attention to the shore as our ferry passed by revealed several cement bunkers left over from World War II, gun emplacements to defend against the Germans. Scapa Flow itself, the square-ish body of water embraced by the southern islands of Orkney, is a great natural harbor about 100-200 feet deep. This was where the British fleet was based in World War I, to control approaches to the North Sea. To prevent U-boat submarines from threatening their fleet, the British sank more than 60 boats to block channels between islands.
These obstructions were firmed up in World War II, when Winston Churchill ordered causeways built to definitively block submarines from entering Scapa Flow except from a couple of defensible directions. Still called the Churchill Barriers, these causeways are in constant use between islands. They were primarily built by Italian POWs — we’ll speak more of them later.
Scapa Flow was where the British made the Germans park over 70 naval ships after they were defeated in World War I. The German fleet remained there some seven months waiting for instructions from negotiators, until a German commander ordered all their ships scuttled to keep them out of the hands of the British. Some ships were saved, but many sank to the not-so-deep bottom of Scapa Flow, where explorers and scavengers have tried their hand at examining the wrecks.
Our drive south on the island of South Ronaldsay was quite nice, and ended in the southeast of the island (sees the dotted line in the map at right, above), where we came upon the exhibition and gift shop of the Tomb of the Eagles. Below is a photo of the main building, and of the one-mile long farm road we walked to get out to the sea. This a privately owned site, well organized and run by the Simison family.
In 1958, farmer Ronnie Simison noticed horizontal stones exposed by the weather along the sandstone cliffs at the edge of his farm. A similar story can be told about many of the ancient sites in Orkney, and we’ll be visiting several.
Simison explored a bit and found a stone chamber containing about 30 skulls. He had come upon what came to be known as the Tomb of the Eagles, because the bones and talons of 14 sea eagles were found alongside the human remains.
Excavation revealed a strange, 5000-year-old, Neolithic burial site. Below you can see how we lay on a rolling board in order to get inside the site. On the right is a view inside, where several chambers were discovered.
It appears that human skeletons were separated into a main chamber for skulls, and side chambers for other bones. And some sea eagle skeletons were included with the skulls.
The theory is that those people practiced “excarnation,” which means they left bodies out in the elements for the sea eagles to pick clean before they separated out the skulls and bones and finally set the skeletons into their final resting place.
This photo, from the Tomb of the Eagles website, dramatically illustrates the concept of excarnation.
The scenery around the tomb is spectacular. Here is a photo showing the same kind of stone that was used in building the burial chamber.
Other ancient sites have been found on the farm as well. Partway back to the exhibition building and gift shop is a 3000-year-old Iron Age site, which the family had help excavating. In the exhibit halls, the two daughters of the farmer demonstrated a number of artifacts found in the Neolithic and Iron Age sites, many of which seem to have had clear uses but experts can only speculate exactly what they were doing.
Below, you can see some of the structures built at the Iron Age site, surrounding a screened-off pit that was attached by trough to a hearth. Clearly, water was heated here, and people can guess a number of possible activities going on here, but nobody is quite sure.
This year the Tomb of the Eagles is closed. I’m not sure what kind of effect the pandemic had on the family’s project, but it appears they may be looking for a museum or other organization to take operating the site. Many of the artifacts from the site have been sent to the Orkney Museum for display. It’s not clear exactly when the Tomb will reopen.
Orkney is packed with ancient sites, and there is tremendous potential for learning a great deal more about ancient residents. Many of the sites are only partially excavated. It appears that in the Neolithic era, the area was several degrees warmer than it is today, suggesting that the people were able to grow more and different crops than today.
Currently, the economy focuses on raising beef and lamb, and dairy products. Orkney ice cream is well known far beyond the islands. There is also a good deal of shellfish farming and fishing.
The density of historical life in Orkney is fascinating, most likely due to its central location. We might not think of the islands in that way now, because we depend so much on traveling by land, but in the old days, Orkney was easily accessible via sea routes used by traders from all over. We’ll get back to that soon.
In the meantime, let’s head to the capital, Kirkwall, where we were based as we explored the islands.
Congratulations on your upcoming induction! I'm so happy for you. You introduced me to Scottish fiddling at OSAS, classes of 2008 and 2009.
Wow, Ed … congratulations!