What a fascinating place. Here, history is part of the present, and both are products of the location and geography of the islands. Standing stones, chamber tombs, a village emerging from the sand dunes, and cairns speak to Neolithic times, and some of the earliest inhabitants of the islands. Runes carved into stones, ruins of round churches and halls and the sagas tell of the Vikings and the Norse earls of Orkney. Castles, churches speak to Stuart times. Monuments to lord Kitchener, the history of the Scapa Flow in both WW1 and WW2 speak to the more recent history of this place. The people use the past to build their present and future. They use rocks from Neolithic sites to build their houses or decorate their lawns. In fact, the search for these stones is often how they discover these sites. We visited a 5000-6000year old chamber tomb that is so well built that it will never collapse unless we try to fix it. ( early "archeologists" explored the mound with picks and small explosives)
The island is almost minimalist. No enormous highlands. Just rolling green tree-less hills leading to cliffs over the sea. Sheep, cattle, prosperous farms. Small compact towns with stone houses. Farm houses and cottages that all seem to have vistas. Ruined stone houses that seem to be ageless. It is hard to know if they were abandoned 30 years ago or 300. And above all, an air of ancient roots and a comfortable now. We love it here, and I am already trying to figure out how to express this in painting.
We promise be to show pictures in future blog posts, but haven't had a chance to go through the (now) thousands of shots we have taken between us. My camera is still cooling after today's ventures.
Tomorrow we return to The mainland and tour north part, ending up in Ullapool. I can hardly wait
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