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As we sailed up to the biggest of the Orkney Islands, it was not clear how close we were.

I saw the pilot boat, so we couldn’t be far off.

Even when the announcement came that we were docked, I couldn’t tell.

Soon we were on the bus for our first tour.

It was still pretty foggy as drove off to our first place.

I’ve always been interested in the Brochs with their double walls and stairs between them.

The issue is the Broch builders may not have been the first folks building here, and certainly weren’t the last. At least three other civilizations built on top of it afterwards.

Our guide finally stopped talking about Celts and Vikings and we moved on to the Broch itself.

I’m not an archeologist, but I do question some of the conclusions they come to.
A big container of water built, not natural, under the big fire pit at the center in a cold windy place where they had double walls…
“This is where we think they communed with the underworld linking, water ground and fire!”
To me it clearly looks like central heating, not a connection to the underworld. I know someone who used a very similar principal to heat his house back in the 80’s.

Still a cool place. Even when the tour guide seems intent on putting spirits and demons in ever corner when stopping a cold wind explains a lot to me.

Then, back on the bus for the next stop.

OK, an isthmus with two different big henges on it? That was probably of some sort of religious significance. That one I’ll give them.
We drove past the first and went to the second.

We didn’t got to the newer (4500 year old) henge, but to the older (5000 year old) one on the other side of the isthmus.

Despite demoing how you can use the stones to reflect your speech and be heard better, we were told about how it was used for all sorts of ritual practices, but they can’t prove human sacrifice…

Apparently when the stopped using this site they did something which left 400 cattle bodies in one pile. Must have been a great party…

You can see the second henge from the first. They’re quite close together.

A short walk from there are a few homes from about the same time.

We were told how it must have been the priests from the henge as the layout of the houses made you go through it counter-clockwise.

“Does the wind normally blow from this direction?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s constant.”
So, when you opened the door, the wind would shoot into the right hand rooms. The left hand rooms had a big long wall that only opened at the back.
Clearly forcing the walking in a direction for ritual reasons rather than block the wind into the main room.
But, I’m not an archeologist…

On the ship we had gone to the history lecture of the area and were told “you can go right up to the stones at this one, hug them if you want.”
So…

My wife was not happy at my hugging the stones, but I am stubborn and said I’d hug them until she took my photo doing it.

Then, onto the bus, back to the ship and lunch.

Then, back out for the other sites. The fog had let up.

The first was the other henge.

No stone hugging here. They don’t let you in among the stones. You’ve got to walk around.

Only 2 miles to the toilets. We set off for the next destination that had a visitor center.

This was Skara Brae a 5000+ year old village that came to light when a storm washed sand off of it.
The walk to there they have laid out in a time line to scale as you walk back.

Ooo, benches.

Our guide stopped to talk about the story of a woman from across the bay and her story. I did not wait for it.
As I said to my wife “If I want to hear a story about someone who left home, partied too much, gave it up and turned their life around, I’d talk to myself.”

I kept walking back in time.

You do get there…

It is very interesting. You can’t walk into the ruins, but that’s probably for the best.

If you walk back to the visitor center, they have a reproduction house that you can go into and look around. It was very nice.

There is a big 200 year old manor house there that you can also tour. But, we didn’t. Too modern for this tour.

I went to the museum instead.

I found this VERY interesting.

A grain grinding stone.

Plenty of other stone tools.

We waited for the others to get back, watched the birds and talked with one of the guides who had also been on our trip to Antarctica in 2021. We talked a lot about that trip and the pains of cruising during Covid.