Orkney, The Bishop's and Earl's Palaces, Skara Brae, Unstan Chambered Cairn, St Magnus Cathedral

We started the day in Kirkwall at the Earl's Palace.  The pictures of this ruins reflect the past magnificence of this palace.  But the story of the occupant is even more enticing.  The Earl Patrick, the illegitimate cousin of the King James VI & 1 (Scotland/England), sometimes known as Black Patie, was the builder of the palace.  He had a reputation for cruelty and violence and a taste for luxury that he could not afford.  This palace was started in 1601, was completed in 1607,  had the best of everything and lots of pageantry and ceremony.  He truly lived as good, if not better than the King.  How did he do this?  Through a complex and muddled web of loans and counter-loans with no realistic plan for repayment.  In 1610 the good -times-rock-and-roll came to an end when the king had him arrested and ultimately beheaded in 1615.  But, still while it lasted, he was having a blast.  

At one time the Grand Ballroom

Right next door to the Earl's Palace is the Bishop's palace.  Constructed 500 years before the Earl's palace in 1102, the Bishop's palace was commissioned by William the Old.  He is traditionally considered the first Bishop of Orkney.  Bishops were then both spiritual powers and secular powers.  In Orkney it was no different.  William the Old came to the Bishopric a rich man and grew much richer as Bishop.

The Bishop's Palace.

And, right across the street is the St. Magnus Cathedral (still active).  It too was commissioned in 1102 and refurbished many times.  Interestingly this was originally commissioned as a Catholic church, reformed to non-catholic and then recommissioned catholic.  All this without one side or the other destroying the church structure; this has not always been the way in Scotland.  The original settlers of Orkney were Norsemen.  The church is built in the style of a Cathedral in Norway.  To this day they display the Norwegian flag in the church and have a Norwegian bible on the altar.

Norse Bible

Both the British and Norwegian flags displayed in the church

We drove out of Kirkwall to the Unstan Chambered Cairn.  This is a partially reconstructed cairn that was unusually partitioned with stone slabs forming five rooms.  This cairn seems to have been used both as a living dwelling and at a later time a burial site.

Orkney is a beehive of archeological studies.  We were lucky enough to view an active dig at the Ness of Brogan.  Manned by archeologist and volunteers, the group has spent the summer uncovering the past.

Tires on top of tarpaulin is how the site is protected over the winter

A new discovery, they will further dig this area next year

Our last stop was a good one, Skara Brae Prehistoric Village.  Now believed to be the oldest urban setting of original construction in Europe.  Before Stonehenge, before the Pyramids, before the Great Wall of China this village existed with a possible population of 100 people.  Each house had what appears to be stone beds and shelves.  They all had a central hearth with venting through the apex of the roof.  When built, 5,100 years ago the houses were buried to their roof tops.  The village was occupied for 600 years and then gradually abandoned.  It was intoxicating to overlook these dwellings and imagine the day to day life that these people lived.  They had toys, musical instruments, games and tools for farming, hunting and fishing.  These people's minds were every bit as developed as are ours, they simply lacked the collective learning that has occurred over the last 5.1 millennia. 

A reproduction of one of the houses

Artifact found on site

Artifact found on site

Musical instrument found on site

As a bonus next to the Skara Brae site is the old mansion of the Laird of this region.  Built in the 1620s it is now a museum preserved as it was when the family last lived in it in the 1970s.  This was a real "Monarch of the Glen" moment for me.