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orkney islands
ON THE MAINLAND
When people speak of Orkney, they generally speak of
Mainland, the 202-square-mile home to history and more
than 17,000 modern-day residents (77 percent of Orkney’s
population). At the heart of Mainland is the town of Kirkwall,
once a strategically vital Viking settlement and now a popular
stop for cruise ships and curious visitors. Kirkwall itself is
home to around 10,000 people, a handful of museums and
festivals and even an airport. But, its primary attractions are
historical sites that must be seen to be believed.
The “Heart of Neolithic Orkney” is a group of 5,000-yearold
sites situated on Mainland. The collection of sites holds
UNESCO World Heritage Site status and includes Skara Brae,
a remarkably preserved Neolithic village with a reconstructed
house, and Maeshowe, a chambered burial tomb that features
12th-century carvings left behind by plundering Vikings.
The most visited and detailed of these sites, Skara Brae,
lies on the Bay of Skaill on Mainland’s west coast. Even
though it was last inhabited from around 3180 to 2500
B.C., eight clustered stone houses still stand in Skara Brae,
making it Europe’s most complete Neolithic village. Older
than both the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge, Skara Brae
has been dubbed the “Scottish Pompeii” due to its timedefying
preservation. Even the howling winds can’t wipe
away the many stirring signs of an ancient civilization in
this illuminating site.
The Heart of Neolithic Orkney also includes two other
fascinating historic sites beyond Skara Brae and Maeshowe.
Both are located just outside Stromness, Mainland’s secondmost
populated town (with only around 2,200 residents)
and a 14-mile drive west from Kirkwall. Fans of Stonehenge
will want to travel five miles northeast of Stromness to
explore the four remaining megaliths of an ancient Neolithic
earthwork (also referred to as a “henge”) known as the
Standing Stones of Stenness. About a mile away stands the
Ring of Brodgar, which boasts a stone circle 104 meters in
diameter. This particular henge monument once featured 60
stones and is believed to have required 80,000 hours of hard
labor (or more than nine years) to construct.
SMALL ISLANDS, BIG IMPACT
Fast forward across several eras and civilizations with the
prevailing winds of history and see how the Orkney Islands
played a vital role in conflicts much more modern and
devastating than any ancient Viking raids.
Orkney played a pivotal role in both World War I and World
War II and, several decades later, powerful reminders of these
globe-spanning, crucial conflicts are etched across these
rugged landscapes. Gun turrets, watchtowers and concrete
bunkers remain on Orkney, but the bulk of the memories and
history reside in a shallow bay known as Scapa Flow.
Sheltered by Mainland and the islands of Graemsay, Burray,
South Ronaldsay and Hoy, the chilly, windswept waters of
Scapa Flow have played pivotal and dramatic roles in many
major conflicts — as well as travel and trade developments —
across the ages.
Scapa Flow once served as a key strategic hub of the British
Home Fleet during both World Wars. It was here, at the end
of World War I, that the German High Seas Fleet was interned
after the 1918 Armistice — then “scuttled” in the summer of
1919. British ships managed to beach a number of the German
ships, but 52 of the 74 interned vessels sank.
Over the next few decades, many of the shipwrecks were
salvaged and hauled away to be scrapped, but those that
remain are now popular SCUBA diving sites. For those
who prefer to study their history on land, visitors to the
interactive Scapa Flow Visitor Centre at Lyness on Hoy can
get a detailed account of these historic events via video,
photography and interesting artifacts.
Scapa Flow also saw serious action during World War
II. After HMS Royal Oak was sunk by a German U-Boat in
1939, Winston Churchill ordered the construction of four
massive causeways to deny eastern approaches into the
bay. Known as the Churchill Barriers, these causeways are
some of Orkney’s most famous landmarks, providing road
access from Mainland to both Burray and South Ronaldsay,
as well as more accessible diving options around the nearby
Blockship wrecks.
On land, sites integral to many battles of the World Wars
are visible all across Orkney, and certain locales feature
monuments and guided tours like Ness Battery in Stromness
and the Balfour Batteries at Hoxa Head.
The winds of Orkney are strong, but they’ve yet to carry
away the tremendous history found on this captivating and
dramatic archipelago. Few places are more remote yet so
central to humankind’s ongoing story as Orkney. A visit here
affords you the chance to write an unforgettable and unique
chapter in your own story.
Just remember to bring a windbreaker.
A professional writer since 1997, Dylan Barmmer lives in Costa Mesa,
California. He is the founder and raconteur of his company Word Is
Born (WordIsBorn.net) and the brainchild behind the movement of
Random Acts of Poetry.