Shelter at Skara Brae

Today was cold, showery, and a strong easterly wind. Photography made more difficult when using a long lens.

The monumental chambered cairn tomb of Maeshowe is reputed to be the finest Neolithic building in NW Europe. It get’s it’s name of Maeshowe from the Old Norse word ‘howe’, meaning hill and because of the type of chambered cairn housed within this grassy mound. It also thought that the person who wanted this mound to be created, not only had vision, but was possibly a wealthy charismatic person to have gathered so many people from far and wide to demonstrate so clearly the tremendous social commitment by them at that time.

The Maeshowe Tour was not disappointing and made all the better by out guide this morning “George” who, coming from Durham, made the 90 minute tour drift away jovially, because he had us laughing so much as he got all the historical fact intertwined with little related stories.
Skaill House was built in 1620 and in its four-hundred year history has had twelve of its Lairds who have all been related and have contributed collectively to the history of the house. However, there has been a couple of notable occupier of the house over the years, namely, the first owner was Bishop George Graham (Bishop of Orkney 1615-1638) who built the house on the site of a farmstead thought to date to the Norse period. Together with the 7th Laird William Graham Watt who discovered Skara Brae in 1850.

Skara Brae became a designated UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site in 1999, because the village of Skara Brae was inhabited long before the Egyptian Pyramids and Stone Henge were ever designed. Skara Brae was inhabited and thriving in Orkney 5000 years ago, or approximately 3100BC. Not only did they successfully farm the area around Skara Brae, but they were also part of the larger community of Orkney, who built great neolithic monuments, including the large stone circle at Brodgar and the tomb at Maeshowe.

So you might be wondering, why I’m offering a juvenile Sparrow for my blip today and not Maeshowe, Skaill House, or Skara Brae as an image. Well, this Sparrow, could have flown in this wind, but I expect it was easier not too, so continuing to find shelter at Skara Brae was better for such a young bird, who still had down feathers that needed to be preened out and anyway, in this wind, he was the only thing around not moving!