The biggest surprise from the cruise was our stop in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. That was our northern most visit. The countryside looks very different there. There aren’t a lot of trees compared to the other ports we visited, but there are several different types of grasses. That’s what I noticed first.
We had a private driver who knew the sites and shared several stories about the region. One of our stops was Skara Brae. Our driver told us in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland causing widespread damage. The storm stripped the earth from a large knoll that became known as Skara Brae. When the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village consisting of several small houses without roofs.
A series of excavations have taken place over the years. The University of Edinburgh is credited with conducting the bulk of the work and securing the site. This is what we saw.
We visited a second excavation site in the heart of Orkney. A farmer, while plowing his field in 2003, unearthed a rock that he believed to be very old, so he invited an archeologist to inspect the site. Excavation of the site began in 2004 and has continued each summer for the past twenty years. They have determined that this site dates back 5000-years-ago. That’s old.
The complex of buildings is known as the Ness of Brodgar. It is widely regarded as one of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe.
A dig is held each summer, and at the end of each season, the site has been covered in tarps weighted down by tires to preserve the work that has been unearthed. Our guide helped uncover the site two days before we visited. This season’s dig began the day prior to our arrival.
Our guide told us that the site will be reburied with soil at the end of this August. The field will be covered over for a final time in a bid to preserve it for future generations.
When we asked why, we were told that no one knows how large the site really is. People have discussed constructing a building to protect the things they’ve discovered but the cost would be astronomical, and any attempts to do so may destroy parts that are still buried. Rather than risk destroying the unknown, they are going to rebury the entire site.
I read more about the Ness of Brodgar when I returned home and learned that what we saw was just a small fraction of what has been unearthed. They have unearthed over thirty structures and can’t be sure how many more there might be.
We were fortunate to visit the site during the final year of this two-decade excavation.
TBC
Great pics..