Orkney – A Traveling Fool

November 3, 2024

Viking British Isles Explorer Cruise: 17th Century Orkney – Skaill House

Literally a stone’s throw from Skara Brae stands a 17^th 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 20^th 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 17^th 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 20^th 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

October 27, 2024

Viking British Isles Explorer Cruise: A Neolithic Orcadian Village – Skara Brae

After a quick lunch in the stateroom back at the ship, we headed out for the afternoon excursion of Skara Brae and Skaill House. We drove through Kirkwall on the way and approached our destination from the inland side. I recognized Skaill House from across the loch even though, when I had been there before, we had only been on the ocean side. It is a large, sprawling house — mostly two stories, but with a three story tower. I quickly raised my phone and took a photo.

The tour coach ended up parking just north of the house, not too far from the visitor center. We got off of the coach and immediately headed along the path to Skara Brae. Since it is below the ground, there isn’t much that can be seen until you are right on top of it. Then, what you see is mesmerizing.

This was how regular people lived in this part of the world at least as far back as 3180 to 2500 BC. Skara Brae is on the Bay of Skaill on the largest island in Orkney, known as Mainland. It consists of ten earthen houses, with stone interior walls, clustered together. Some of them have the remains of stone furniture and even sewer systems.

It is the best preserved Neolithic village in Europe. It also happens to be older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids. I am fascinated by Skara Brae both because of its age and the fact that the buildings were the homes of regular people. Not palaces or tombs.

Skara Brae was discovered when a nasty storm hit Scotland in the winter of 1850. The top of the hill containing the houses was ripped off revealing parts of some of them. Excavations began to reveal the rest of them.

The houses were built into mounds of domestic waste known as middens, which created some stability for the mortarless stone walls while also acting as insulation. They are not certain what was burned in the firepits as peat was not readily available as fuel until after Skara Brae had already been abandoned. Possible fuels could have been animal dung, dried seaweed or driftwood. Trees have never been in abundance on Orkney.

Looking at the photos I took, you can see that the furniture includes dressers, storage boxes, cupboards, and even rudimentary beds. The doors to each house were made of stone slabs which used bars made of bone to shut them. Beads and painted pots were left behind in many of the houses, which suggests that the inhabitants may have left in a hurry.

One of the buildings, House 8, is different from the rest. It has no dresser or storage boxes and has been divided into smaller areas. There also appears to be a flue as well as fragments of bone, antler, and stone. It is thought that this house, which also is a stand-alone structure not surrounded by midden, was used to make tools.

House #1 is the most complete. It has a fire pit in the center. A dresser is against the wall bordering the sea. When facing the dresser, the men’s bed is at the left and the women’s bed at the right. You can see storage boxes scattered around and also see some cupboards built into the walls.

It is believed that the people who built Skara Brae primarily raised cattle, sheep and pigs. Evidence shows that barley was cultivated. Fish bones and shells were also found.

Artefacts include lumps of red ochre (indicating the possibility of body painting), and awls, needles, knives, beads, shovels, small bowls, and ivory pins. These items were made of animal, fish, bird, and whalebone, as well as walrus ivory and orca teeth.

Additional excavations in 1972 reached layers that had remained under water and therefore contained items that would have been destroyed if not having been preserved in the water. These included a wooden handle and a piece of rope made from a twisted skein of heather.

On my previous visit to Skara Brae, it had been raining quite heavily there too. This made the paths and grass upon which we needed to walk to be able to look down into the houses rather treacherous.

On this trip, I was able to take my time and thoroughly photograph everything. It was cold since I was near the sea, but it wasn’t raining. I spent a lot of time both in the real Skara Brae and visiting the reproduction of what one of the houses might have looked like when it was inhabited. It actually seemed rather cozy. It would have been interesting to know how many people lived in a house.

Next time – 17^th Century Orkney – Skaill House

October 20, 2024

Viking British Isles Explorer Cruise: Prehistoric Orkney – And You Thought Stonehenge Was Old

I have divided Orkney into three posts as there was so much to see there, spread across two excursions. This first part has to do with Maeshowe, the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, and the Ness of Brodgar. This was the morning excursion, which ended with a visit to the town of Stromness.

I am really fascinated by ancient civilizations and archaeology, so this was my second trip to Orkney. The islands there have been inhabited for at least 8,500 years (Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etcetera). Orkney became part of the Pictish kingdom by the late Iron Age.

In 875, Orkney was colonized and annexed by the Kingdom of Norway. This was around the time that my Norse ancestors turned up in Orkney. The king at the time was Harald Fairhair (Harald Hårfagne). Rognvald Eysteinsson was the first Jarl (or Earl) of both Orkney and Shetland. He was a close relative and ally of Harald Fairhair. His nicknames were “Rognvald the Wise” and “Rognvald the Powerful”. He died in about 890.

After a few centuries, the then fully Norse Orkney (the Picts had been assimilated) was absorbed into Scotland in 1472 following the failure of the Norwegian king to pay a dowry to James III of Scotland for his daughter, Margaret of Denmark.

Orkney consists of Mainland, the North Isles and the South Isles. The people are referred to as Orcadians. The climate is mild; the soil fertile; the most important sector of the economy is agriculture.

The ship was docked at Kirkwall, the largest city in Orkney. It has an airport with regular flights to various parts of Scotland. St Magnus Cathedral was built in honor of the martyrdom of Magnus Erlendsson, who was killed in April of 1116 by his cousin Haakon Paulsson. The people in power all seem to have been related in some way.

The last time I had been in Orkney, it was raining quite heavily as we ventured into the area where Maeshowe, the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the Ring of Brodgar were located. During that earlier visit, I could barely see Maeshowe, much less photograph it.

Maeshowe is a chambered cairn and passageway grave that was probably built around 2800 BC. This specific type of tomb, with a long, low entrance passageway (about three feet in height) leading to a square (or rectangular) chamber from which there is access to a number of side cells, was only built on Orkney. It is, however, somewhat similar to Newgrange in Ireland so there might have been a link between the two cultures.

The Norsemen left behind their graffiti when they first discovered and entered the tomb sometime in about the 12th century. Of course, their graffiti was in runes. It still said the usual “Harald was here” though.

Begun in about 3100 BC, the Standing Stones of Stenness are possibly the oldest henge site in the British Isles. Originally there were thought to have been 12 stones. There are four left. My attempts at photographing them the first time I was there ended up with some rain-streaked, blurry shots taken through the tour coach window. This time I actually got a couple of decent photos.

The Ring of Brodgar is the only major henge and stone circle in Britain that is almost a perfect circle. The interior of the circle, which was erected between 2500 and 2000 BC has never been excavated. It is the last of the great Neolithic monuments built on the Ness of Brodgar.

Surrounded by a ditch, the circle consists of 27 stones out of its original 60. Despite the torrential rain experienced during the first visit (in 2009) we were actually allowed to walk around amongst the stones. Since the rain was mainly horizontal, due to the high winds and lack of trees, I hid myself behind one of the stones and photographed what I could from there.

On this trip, we were greeted by a herd of cattle. We were not allowed to enter the circle. But we could walk around the perimeter of the entire site and photograph it from all angles. I got some shots of nearby burial mounds too.

Upon leaving the Ring of Brodgar and heading towards the village of Stromness, we passed the Ness of Brodgar excavation. This site (from 2004 to 2024) has uncovered about 40 structures. It was built roughly between 3500 and 2400 BC. They were just about to start covering it over again with the same dirt that was previously removed from the site.

The problem is that, while the stones used at Skara Brae are hard beach stones, the stones used here are quarried stones that are being eroded by being exposed to the elements. The only way to protect it all is to cover it up. They have loads of photos, data, and items they have unearthed that they can study for many years to come. Then, when the technology to possibly preserve the site and building remains is at hand, one of those future generations can dig it up again and still have something to see.

At Stromness (population roughly 2,500), I bought a couple of watercolors of the Stones of Stenness and a painted fridge magnet of the Ring of Brodgar. Since I didn’t have a lot of time in between this excursion and the afternoon tour to have lunch, I also picked up a sausage roll, some crisps, and an energizing chocolate bar to consume in my stateroom before heading out again to see more really, really old stuff.

Next time – A Neolithic Orcadian Village – Skara Brae

December 15, 2022

Thoughts While on the Avalon Waterways Grand France River Cruise: Knowledge of my own ancestry within an area makes me feel more connected to it

Probably as part of my love of history, I also trace my family roots. Some people just stick to one part of their family. I don’t. I trace both sides and all the little branches that stem off from them. It has been some of those branches where I have found some of the most interesting ancestors, including the occasional saint or not so much a saint.

Full disclosure, one of Richard III of England’s henchmen, William Catesby, who has been considered to have possibly been one of the men who murdered the two princes in the Tower of London, and who died at Bosworth along with his boss, is a 16^th great grandfather. But then I share that particular ancestor with the Game of Thrones actor, Kit Harington, so that’s alright. I’m descended from Catesby’s daughter, Elizabeth, while Kit is descended from his son, George.

Since I had some Viking (Norse) ancestors head down from Norway to settle on Orkney, I definitely loved being able to spend some time on Orkney, exploring some of the places they would have been. Then we get into Scotland where there were many, many ancestors running around. One was actually murdered in Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.

Loads of ancestors all over England and Wales too. A Scottish de Ros ancestor acquired the original version of Belvoir (pronounced “Beaver”) Castle through marriage in the 13^th century. When his male line died out, the Manners family (a de Ros nephew who became the 1^st Duke of Rutland) took over and still owns the place. When I visited the castle, I was on a tour. But my tour group was small and given a private tour of the castle by a member of the staff. We were also greeted by the Duchess at that time.

In the United States, I have a lot of ancestral ties to Massachusetts from the 1600s in places like Plymouth, Boston, Marblehead, and Salem. In Boston especially I know where my ancestors lived and where some of them are buried. It was so wonderful to be able to walk around in that area and try to imagine back to when they were there.

For the Grand France River Cruise, I had printed out the names, dates and birthplaces of my French ancestors. There were a few hundred of them. That way, as we traveled around, I could have some context of which ancestors were from where and when.

In Arles, all of my ancestors were from such an early period of time that it was possible that some of them might have lived in houses that were built in the Arena when that was no longer used for its original purpose. The time period that those houses existed was the same as the time period of my ancestors.

I had ancestors from all over Burgundy, but I don’t necessarily know the individual towns. So, when we got to that part of France, I just took loads of photos of anything really old. I also drank a fair amount of the wines from that region.

In Normandy, I had many, many ancestors. A couple of the main towns in which they lived were Bayeux and Rouen. There were parts of both places where I felt transported back in time and could easily imagine what it might have been like in their day.

I started on my genealogical quest back in the days when I had to physically go into a library and study the microfiche and other items they might have and then send away for birth, death and marriage certificates, etc. Having access to online data sure does help enormously. There are a lot of things that can be found out without ever paying any money to anyone.

Although I love traveling to every place to which I have traveled so far, I have to admit that I get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I am someplace where I know my ancestors have been and I can get an idea of what their lives might have been like.