More of Neolithic Orkney and Historic Stromness – The Barnhouse Settlement, Stones of Stenness, Maeshowe Chambered Tomb, Stromness Heritage Walk and Museum
I started my second full day on Orkney Mainland with an excellent guided tour of the Barnhouse Settlement and the Stones of Stenness. Older than the nearby Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness were built around 5,400 years ago and are possibly the earliest henge monument ever erected in the British Isles (it is older than Stonehenge by a millennium). It once consisted of 12 stones, encircled by a large ditch and bank, but now only 4 stones remain standing and the shapes of the ditch and bank have been erased over time by ploughing.
The site was very busy as many tour buses stop here but, with patience, I was able to photograph some of the individual stones on their own. Our guide related many facts, stories, and theories about this ancient stone circle and the roles it may have played in the ceremonial and spiritual life of the Neolithic farming culture that built it.
Close to Stenness is the Barnhouse Settlement, the remains of a small village which is the same age as the Stones of Stenness Circle and it is thought that those who lived here built the stone circle. As we neared the site, I turned for this lovely view of the pathway to the stones and of the mountains of Hoy in the distance. They were no longer encased in mist!
Unlike at Skara Brae, the structures here have been reconstructed, with stones placed as they were found during excavation. Our guide showed us three structures, the first of which was a small rectangular home with a layout similar to those found at Skara Brae with box beds, central hearths, and storage dressers. At least 15 such homes were found in the village. The second structure (below) was more like a duplex, with a passageway entrance and then the space is divided into two non-symmetrical halves, each with its own central hearth. It is possible that the spaces were used as workshops.
The third structure was comprised of a large circular outer wall, 1.5 metres thick, that would likely have been quite high. Inside the wall was a large rectangular structure with the entrance aligned so that the midsummer sunset shone down its entrance passage. The structure is thought to have had a ceremonial function because of its large size, alignments, enclosing wall, and archaeological finds.
After my guided tour I walked the short distance to the Maeshowe Visitor Centre to wait for the start of my next tour, this one into the finely constructed and nearly perfectly intact Maeshowe chambered cairn, built around 3500 BC. The long, narrow, and low entrance tunnel is aligned to let light shine onto the back wall of the tomb’s central chamber on the day of the winter solstice. The main chamber is roughly square in shape and surrounded by three smaller cells, and the high corbeled ceiling was built without mortar. Etched into the walls are Nordic runes, the largest collection of Norse runes outside of Scandinavia. The Orkneying Saga, written in Iceland in the 13th century, tells of a band of Vikings that took shelter here during a storm a century before. One set of runes tells of a great treasure, but many are boasts such as this one, “These runes were incised by the best runester in the west, using the axe that Gaul Thrandilsson once owned in south Iceland.” There are boasts of another kind as well, for example “Thorny was bedded”, and “Ingigerd is the best of them all.”
After lunch and an afternoon rest at my hostel, I headed out to do the Stromness Heritage Walk and to visit the Stromness museum. Armed with my pamphlet guide, I walked along the winding harbourfront street looking for the blue plaques that highlighted places of interest. At one stop was a cannon that was reputedly fired to signal the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company ships into the harbour. Another, most interesting stop, was at an old stone plaque marking the site of Login’s Well. This well supplied water to the ships of the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1670-1891, to Captain Cook’s vessels, the Resolution and Discovery, in 1780, and to Sir John Franklin’s Ships, Erebus and Terror, for their Arctic expedition of 1845!
Next, I visited Stromness Museum which was founded in 1837 and has quite an eclectic collection of artefacts. I learned that Stromness was a base for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1670 to 1891. The company recruited men from Orkney to work in the fur trade, and by the late 18th century, three-quarters of the company’s work force in Canada were Orkadians!
Stromness had a very active Natural History Society during the Victorian age, and some of their collections of taxidermy, rocks, shells, fossils, etc. take up most of the second floor of the museum. I spent a lot of time here, especially looking at the beautiful birds, and at the collections of nests and eggs.
There were also some items in the museum which were found at Skara Brae, including “Buddo” a small figurine carved from whale bone sometime between 2900-2400 BC. It is one of only a few known human-like figurines that date from the Neolithic period of Great Britain. Also on display from Skara Brae were a stone pot containing crushed red ochre, bone points and pins, and necklaces of bone and shell. The blackened urn contains cremated human bone, found in a burial mound near Sandwick.
Whaling was also prominent in Stromness’ maritime history. From about the 1770s to the 1870s, whaling ships took on crews in Stromness, looking for young men who were skilled in handling small boats in rough seas. In 1816, the Aberdeen Chronicle recorded 34 whaling ships docked in Stromness Harbour. On display were models of boats and harpoons, etc., but my attention was caught by a set of scrimshaw (decorated bone or ivory objects crafted by whalers) that included two walrus tusks and four whale’s teeth. The etched images, chiefly of Arctic animals, are very beautiful and the artist must have been a somewhat soft-hearted whaler to have depicted the mother polar bear and her cub so tenderly. He may also have been missing the comforts and safety of home as whaling voyages often lasted four years or more and were very dangerous. The scene of the whale breaking the small boat apart, with all of the whalers tossed into the frigid seas, destined to drown, surely depicts a fear held by many, if not all, of the men who took on this dangerous job.
After my time at the museum I strolled further along Stromness’ harbourfront street, eventually leaving the town behind. It was a wonderful walk, with a fresh breeze, bright sun, and a beautiful sky and sea. Here, the NorthLink ferry is leaving Stromness harbour.
I descended to the beach for this photo of the Hoy Sound High lighthouse. Look at the colour of that water!
I continued along, sometimes down on the beach and sometimes up higher on the path beside the road. The mountains of Hoy were beautiful in the distance,
and I appreciated this silhouette of two friends enjoying a peaceful moment.
I considered walking a little further (you can continue from here on a coastal trail for seventeen kilometres all the way to Skara Brae, and then walk another twelve kilometres to the Brough of Birsay), but I was happy to turn around and make the return journey to my hostel, now with a greater appreciation for the historic harbour town of Stromness, and for long human history and timeless landscapes of these Orkney islands.
