Unstan Chambered Cairn

A wet morning today found us in the Kirkwall museum, where there is a very detailed exhibition about the Ness of Brogdar. In the afternoon we visited the passage grave at Maeshowe, built about 3000 BC it is contemporary with, or perhaps slightly later than, Newgrange in Ireland.  Although it does not have the same elaborate neolithic carvings as Newgrange, it is famous for Viking graffiti dating from the 12th century.

Photographs are not allowed in Maesowe so today's blip is of a chambered burial cairn at Unstan, not far from Maeshowe, which is from a slightly earlier period and is a very different style --- it has upright slabs dividing it into separate "stalls". There is a  modern roof that lets light in and allows algae to grow, hence the green on the stone. 

The extra is a display case in the Kirkwall museum of some stuff found in a neolithic tomb (about 3000BC) near Ibister in Orkney, known as "The Tomb of the Eagles" from some eagle bones found there, seen in the upper half of the display. Below are some stone axes, beads and a ring, also found there.