Prehistoric Orkney--Skara Brae

Today we will visit the prehistoric and Pictish ruins for which Orkney is known for.   Our hostess Lynda at Houton Bay Lodge is a wealth of information.  We drive the 8 miles back into Stromness and right off the bat we get lost.  Never mind that we managed to get out of Edinburgh without getting lost.  We negotiate our way back out of town and finally get back onto the right road headed towards Skara Brae.

www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

Skara Brae, situated on the Bay of Skail, is a ruin from the late Neolithic period thought to date from as early as 3200 BC.  In other words, these ruins are around 5,000 years old.  During the winter of 1850 a tremendous storm battered this side of the island and the ruins were exposed.  What initially was thought to be a Pictish ruin turned out to be one of the oldest and best  preserved neolithic villages  in Western Europe.  The site features a visitors center, gift shop and cafe as well as a replica house that can be viewed up close before viewing the actual ruins.  We view the replica and then head outside into the scouring wind to view the ruins which are several feet down in the ground.  We quietly look down into the small group of dwellings where men, women and children carried on their lives 5000 years ago and try to image the sounds of a prehistoric household might make -- the sound of children playing and the tending of daily chores.  Without the benefit of forged metal, using only bone, wood, animal hide and clay the inhabitants of these dwellings attempted to fashion lives for themselves.

Neolithic ruins, Skara Brae, Orkney Islands

We walk down to the beach where we find relief from the howling wind.  I find myself a bit frustrated because no words, no pictures, no vacation trinkets can adequately encapsulate what I am seeing and experiencing in this incredible landscape.  I look down at the pebbles and rocks on the beach remembering what my grandmother always did when visiting a place.  She never went to far flung places - Hot Springs Arkansas, and Florida-- but she brought home a rock or stone from wherever she had been, some of them quite large and many of them ended up forming a border in her flower bed.  Looking down I spot a small flat stone a bit bigger than a quarter with a rust colored background and charcoal grey veins.  I stoop to pick it up, wipe it off and let it dry out a bit before slipping it into my pocket.  The stone is older than the ruins themselves and a reminder that all places are special and millions of years in the making .

We climb back to the visitors center and have a very tasty lunch in the cafe before heading to our next site.

Beach, Bay of Skail

Beach, Bay of Skail