The Westray Wife

The Westray Wife (also known as the Orkney Venus) is a small Neolithic figurine, 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in height, carved from sandstone. It was discovered during an Historic Scotland dig at the Links of Noltland, on Westray, Orkney, Scotland, in the summer of 2009. It was the first Neolithic carving of a human form to have been found in Scotland, and to date it is the earliest depiction of a face found in the United Kingdom.

This particular “wife” is a fridge magnet that I’ve had for some years now. Notland is all of about a mile from my parents’ house on Westray.

The Orkney Islands are filled with wonderful archeological sites that are well worth visiting but if you can’t personally get to them, check them out on-line.

I’ve been spoiled as some of these sites I had the opportunity to visit back in the day before they were such tourist attractions and before restrictions were put in place to preserve the sites from damage from human traffic.

Just as I remember when the plane coming into Westray used to buzz the field before landing to clear the sheep, and there was no paved runway. The airport was a wooden building and the fire truck a tractor (see extra) The extra is of me and my friend Jane at the Westray airport in 1970.