Maximus Nostramabus
- Dec 20, 2023
- 7 min read

Stenness

Updated: 6 days ago

4000-year old Neolithic village and culture in a remote island of Scotland - Heart of Neolithic Orkney 514

What and Why

In the islands of Orkney of Scotland stands four main archaeological sites of the Neolithic age of mysterious origin. These four sites have been marked to be founded from 3200 to 2500 BCE and are actually older than the Stonehenge as blogged in Amesbury or the pyramids in Giza (الجيزة). They also draw comparisons of my visit to the megalithic structures in Malta as blogged in Xagħra (Ix-Xagħra) and the tumulus blogged in Donore (Dún Uabhair). These sites provide important clues and evidences of the lifestyle of the islanders more than 5,000 years ago!

Toponymy

The sites are all located in Orkney and scattered around a few different sites:

Orkney: The islands have been called 'Orkas (Greek: Όρκάς)' by Greek explorers since the 3rd century BCE. The stem 'ork-' is usually referred to mean 'young pig'. When the Vikings (Old Norse: víkingr) arrived in the 9th century CE, they reinterpreted this stem as 'orkn' in Old Norse meaning 'seal' and added 'eyjar' meaning 'islands' to the word, and so the name became 'Orkneyjar', literally meaning 'seal islands'. The '-jar' was later removed through anglicisation.
Stenness (pronounced /ˈstɛnɪs/): The word means 'stone headland' in Old Norse.
Maeshowe: There is no certainty in the etymology of Maeshowe. The most common interpretation is that it derives from Gaelic 'mas' meaning 'buttock' referring to the nearby hillock and 'howe' meaning 'valley'. Hence the name may suggests 'valley near the hillock'. This is however disputed as it is rare to find Celtic or Gaelic roots or stems in other words of the region.

Stromness: The name comes from the Norse city name Straumnes. 'Straumr' refers to the strong tides that rip past the sound to the south of the town. 'Nes' means 'headland' and hence 'Stromness' means 'headland with strong tides at the sound'.
Skara Brae: The name arrives from the old name 'Skerrabra'. The meaning of 'skara/skerra' is untraceable.

See

Maeshowe

Built in the 28th century BCE, Maeshowe is a tumulus grave site found in the town of Stenness and is one of the largest tombs in Orkney. There are seven known tumuli around Orkney but only this one is open for public visit. To access the site, one has to take a five-minute shuttle bus ride from the Maeshowe Visitor Centre.

Maeshowe has a diameter of approximately 36 m and height 7.5 m and bears uncanny resemblance in shape and astronomical function with the tumulus found in Newgrange (Irish : Sí an Bhrú), Donore (Dún Uabhair), which suggests linkages between the two cultures, although Maeshowe is visibly much smaller. Considering their similar time of construction this should not have come as a surprise. Surrounding the mound, there is a ditch up to 15 m wide, serving something like a moat. Similar to Newgrange, the entrance passage into the inside chamber is aligned exactly to the axis of the first sunray during the winter solstice, and in-so-doing illluminates the central niche of the chamber.

The entrance passage is approximately 11 m long, 0.9 m tall only and all visitors are expected to crawl or crouch in. The passage itself is constructed using a small number of continuous long stone slabs which extend along the passage wall. The overall construction of the tumulus and the chamber reveals very advanced construction techniques and knowledge.

The central square chamber measures about 4.6 m on each side with a corbelled ceiling height of almost 4 m. The current roof is reconstructed and preserved with modern techniques.

Inside the chamber, there are three niches and sub-chamber on each side. While it is known that the human remains were found in the other tumuli, none was found in Maeshowe. It was hence proposed that Maeshowe was not a tomb but more than an observatory.

One of the interesting features of Maeshowe is that a lot of Viking runic graffiti are found inside the tumulus. These graffiti showed that the Vikings were the first to explore these caves during the 12th century CE.

There are more than 30 numbers of inscriptions around including some pictures. These inscriptions make it one of the largest, and most famous, collections of runes known in Europe. The runic below is translated to 'Þorni fucked. Helgi carved'...

Standing Stones of Stenness

The Standing Stones of Stenness is a set of thin-slab stones erected in a form of circular henge system. This is often credited as the oldest henge system in the United Kingdom. These stone slabs are around 5 m tall and are relatively blade-thin. While there are only a few pieces left, it was conjectured that the henge consists of twelve slabs oriented like a clock, indicated of its astronomical function. The centre of the henge, called the hearth, sits a square stone setting in the centre of the circle platform where cremated bone, charcoal and pottery were found.

One of the stones that had been destroyed, the Odin Stone, occupied a particularly special place in the customs, traditions and lore of the Orcadian people. This is a slab located at the north of the circle with a circular hole in it. They believed the couples can gain fortune and magical power by holding their hands through the hole, this is called the 'Odin's (Old Norse : Óðinn) vow'.

To the outrage of many locals, in 1814 CE William Mackay, a recent immigrant into Orkney who owned farmland in the vicinity of the henge, decided to remove the stones because the local people were trespassing and disturbing his land by using the stones for various rituals. In particular he smashed and destroyed the Odin Stone first. Clearly he became hugely unpopular and his name is since etched in infamy in Orkney's history.

Ring of Brogdar

The Ring of Brogdar is a stone circles which is quite near the Standing Stones of Stenness. The stone circle almost forms a perfect circle of diameter 104 m composed of originally 60 stones like a modern clock, which clearly points to astronomical functions. However only 27 of them remain in the site. The tallest stone stands on at the southeast corner called Stone 42.

Ring of Brogdar aerial view (from internet)

The stones are set within a circular ditch up to 3 m, 9 m wide and 380 m in circumference. Archaeological evidences seem to suggest that the ditch appears to have been created in sections and were there before the stone erections.

Skara Brae

Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic village located in Stromness, the west side of the main island. The site was built as early as 3180 BCE, which is much older than the Stonehenge, and is considered one the most complete and well-preserved Neolithic archaeological village in the world. As a result this site is extremely valuable in the understanding of Neolithic civilisation. The site, incredibly was actually uncovered in 1850 CE, when a storm hit the coast and ripped off the surface soil and revealed the extensive village under the soil.

There are a number of important features of Skara Brae. The ten houses are clustered closely together linked by a main passage that threads through all the houses, without a strict geometric patterns or astronomical alignment, unlike Maeshowe or Ġgantija in Malta. This seems to suggest that the habitants were very close with each other and led a communal lifestyle. The houses were built sunk in the ground called middens. This provided the houses with stability and also acted as insulation against Orkney's harsh winter.

Every house has a focal stone hearth for heating and cooking and this seems to be centre of each house. Many of the houses have similar furniture, with the beds and a dressing table / shelf in the same places in each house. The dressing table stands right opposite to the door is the first thing seen by anyone entering the house. There are also significant number of storage spaces and shelves in all these houses.

Archaeological finds also show that the inhabitants of Skara Brae were makers of grooved ware, a distinctive style of pottery.

Many of the artefacts found are kept in the small museum to the left of the plan above. The most special of them are the carved stone balls and they are related to Newgrange. There are artefacts which also display a special type of runic writings.

Buy and Do

World shortest flight

One of the most interesting things to do in Orkney is to take the world's shortest scheduled flight: between the towns of Westray and Papa Westray of the Orkney island group. The flight distance is barely 2.7 km and the flight takes around one minute, the fastest in record being 53 s: pretty sure that the check-in time will be longer than that. The flight mainly serves the students who work on the various archaeological sites in Papa Westray, and also the healthcare workers serving the two islands. Nowadays it has also become something like a theme-park ride for tourists who take the flight as a round trip just for fun. A one-way ticket costs GBP £7.50 which is quite pricey if you count it by per distance or minute. One wonders why a bridge was not built between the islands...

Eat and Drink

Orkney beef and lamb

Orkney meat, especially its beef and lamb is renowned as the best in the UK and is sold in butcher shops at premium price. Orkney meat is a premium product largely because of itsclean environment and the high standards of animal husbandry in the islands. Orkney was one of the first areas in Europe to produce fully traceable beef, with cattle enjoying a forage-based diet in green and fertile fields.

Orkney sheep and lamb eat kelp around the coast. As a result the lamb and mutton tastes a bit salty by itself and is particularly good and rich in iodine.

Stay

We stayed in Eastbrae Cottages and Lodges, something like an Airbnb and we occupied the entire house. One minute drive away from the city centre. Excellent stay.

Getting There and Around

We drove all the way from Aberdeen to Stromness via a ferry ride.

Both Maeshowe and Skara Brae require an entrance fee of £9 and £10 respectively. The islands of Orkney definitely deserves a few days of visit. The island groups offer more spots than just the UNESCO WHS.