Literally a stone’s throw from Skara Brae stands a 17th century manor house built over a pre-Norse burial site and surrounded by various burial mounds. It has been enlarged over the centuries. Nowadays the house is open for tours. Parts of the building that have been redeveloped into apartments are available as holiday rentals.
On my first visit there, once I finished photographing Skara Brae, I traipsed through the mud towards Skaill House. I had the very odd experience of being rained upon heavily on one side of the arch next to the house, only to find that the rain ended abruptly when I walked through the arch. I turned around to look back through the arch and could see it was still definitely raining on the other side. Interestingly enough, a large stretch of the pre-Norse burial site lies next to the house right where I was standing. I was walking over graves from that point to the entrance porch on the other side of that part of the house.
When the flagstone floor in the Main Hall was replaced by Oak flooring in the 20th century, more skeletons were discovered there. There has been a debate about whether the skeletons were Norse or Pictish. They seem to have settled on pre-Norse. Before the Vikings, but maybe not necessarily the Picts. The current owner thinks that either they didn’t know the graves were there, or they weren’t concerned about it. According to my DNA, I have both Viking and ancient Briton. In this part of the UK, that likely would have been the Picts.
When coming from Skara Brae, it seems that the house is being entered at the back. The rear of the house, is actually facing Skara Brae (although that had once been the front of the house). But the main road now comes to the property on the side of the loch, which is the opposite of where Skara Brae sits on the edge of the ocean. The main drive comes up to the house from the loch. The East Porch, which is the front entrance to the house, was built in 1878.
Entering through the East Porch, the Entrance Hall was created from a storage room and pantry when the main entrance was moved. I showed the woman sitting there my ticket and bought a guidebook for £4.00. The Dining Room was the next room. The dishes in the display cabinet were once owned by Captain Cook and were brought to Skaill House in 1780 by Captain King after Captain Cook was killed in Hawaii.
The Library, which had an interesting atmosphere, is the room with the odd round window. The portrait next to the window is of the son of a former owner of the house (Colonel Scarth) who was killed at the age of 14 from an accident with a horse. The round window was created to allow for light while making room for a flue pipe to reach the gable chimney from a boiler that had been installed near the library.
The Main Hall and the wing to the south of it were added, along with the main staircase, in roughly 1790. At that time the road was to the west of the house (on the Skara Brae side), so the main entrance was moved to the Main Hall, where it remained until the road was moved to the east side of the house.
The Main Hall contains a large, dark cupboard, called the Armada Chest. The panels of the chest are said to have come from one of the Spanish galleons which sank in 1588. A similar chest is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Visitors are sent up the main staircase to see the rooms on the floor above.
The large Drawing Room sits in the south wing (above the dining room and library) and has views of both the loch to the east and the bay to the west. My photos of the room show the doors of a closet containing glassware open on the east-facing end of the room, and a less formal area on the west facing end.
From there the former dressing room and bedroom of Colonel Scarth are used as exhibit rooms. Just before entering the 17th century bedroom of Bishop Graham, I came across a part of the house I had not seen when I was there in 2009. This was the dressing room and bedroom of Colonel Scarth’s wife. They have been kept as they were from the early 20th century.
It is said that when visitors were able to enter the rooms and take a closer look at her belongings, her ghost wasn’t happy and let it be known. Once the rooms were roped off at the doorways, she settled down. Skaill House is reportedly very, very haunted with ghosts from many different centuries in many parts of the house. So you never know who you might encounter.
On this visit, as I did on my previous visit, I headed straight for Skaill House after spending loads of time at Skara Brae. After touring the house, I visited its gift shop and bought some beautiful, silver, Celtic earrings before heading to the reproduction of one of the houses at Skara Brae. I still had a decent amount of time before we needed to get back on the tour coach.
I checked out the visitor center which seemed to be larger than I remembered it from 2009. I found a couple necklaces for my sister-in-laws there and had a nice cup of hot chocolate to warm me up. It was quite nippy the closer one was to the sea. So spending so much time at House #1 of Skara Brae, which was right next to the sea necessitated a warming drink. I still got my usual Lemon Drop Martini at that evening’s presentation on “Roman Britain” however.
When we returned to the ship, we found some pipers and Scottish dancers performing for us just before the ship sailed. They were on the same side of the ship as my stateroom so I could get the best view of them from up above. A couple of photos are here with this post.
I was very glad to see Skaill House again, but don’t think I would be interested in spending the night. At least not completely on my own.
Next time – Linlithgow Palace – Birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots
