The Rings

(Post should have been 28th but no phone signal to post!)
Today began with groans and moans as yesterday's bruises took their toll on Anny's back and legs, but the application of a heat pad overnight was declared to have been a great help and the application of tea, heat and breakfast helped greatly. We headed for Maes Howe for the second attempt, arriving safely as before and parking with great deliberation, extremely close to the kerb, with the aim of foiling any attempt on Anny's part to trip over again. I stood close at hand and prepared to catch any staggers but in fact this time the disembarkation process proceeded flawlessly and we made it inside safely to be greeted by anxious staff. Having satisfied themselves that Anny was in fact recovered and healthy, we were ushered into an excellent tour of Maes Howe.
The chamber itself was fascinating and it was a pity (but understandable) that all access has to be by guided tour. I would have enjoyed ferreting into the side chambers and reading all the runic graffitti in peace but it was not to be. Interestingly both Anny and I felt that the place was not a tomb at all but an initiation space, since it felt so very different from the Tomb of the Eagles and Banks Chambered Cairn, neither of which had provided any kind of echo or reverberation when we were in them while Maes Howe provided excellent echo space and, of course, has the three internal chambers to be shut up individually and the famous light-box for midwinter sunrise.
Maes Howe completed, we checked a few directions with a compass to confirm what we felt about the landscape alignments (such as where the sun would rise and set behind various hills) and then set off to investigate the Stones of Stenness, which were visible from Maes Howe quite easily (as indeed was the Ring of Brodgar). The Stones turned out to have a very fine wide layby so we had a pot of tea.
Thus fortified, we sallied forth into the field to investigate the Stones of Stenness, a fine tall monument of five standing stones (surviving) and a pair of slim pillars with a fallen slab of a dolmen next to them.We paced both ways around the circle individually, both of us finding that we were drawn to enter the circle at the same place (which turned out to be the 'correct' entrance spot according to the archeology/interpretation boards at the entrance when we checked later). Standing on the dolmen and looking through the gap between the two uprights by it gave a view of Maes Howe, which was interesting as these two monuments were in use at the same time (c.7,000 years ago).
Having pranced about the Stones for a while, we investigated the village a couple of hundred yards away which was also in use at the same time as the Stones. This turned out to be fascinating as we both immediately felt sure it was a 'ceremonial' settlement rather than a normal everyday village, where the population were perhaps serving a period looking after the Stones. One building in particular was very definitely used, we felt, by groups of people, as it had an outer wall which enclosed an inner building. The outer area felt watery, with a covered drain in one corner, a wider section that felt like a seating area and lots of moss and soft ground underfoot. It felt like a place for ablutions. Proceeding around this space, one came to the diametrically opposite entrance to the inner area, which had a low doorway section and then a hearth set in the doorway of an inner room, which had another very large hearth in its centre and low walls that proved ideal for sitting on while, perhaps, story-telling, feasting or other communal activities in a wall, enclosed (perhaps sauna-like?) atmosphere. There was also a small drain in the corner that led out into the covered drain we'd noticed outside, so providing indoor sanitation as well!
After this, we had a look at the Watchstone at the end of the bridge to the Ness of Brodgar, a narrow space of water separating south-west to north-east land between the Lochs of Harray and Stenness. it was a very imposing guardian of the crossing point and an offering of three red-skinned potatoes, a neep, a bulb of garlic and a carrot lay tidily at its foot, which was fascinating.
We retired to the Kite Wagon and proceeded across the Ness of Brodgar to the car park at the Ring of Brodgar, the younger and much bigger ring of standing stones on a slight hill above the lochs and all of perhaps a hundred yards from the Stones of Stenness. They also had many fascinating aspects and we took several photos and a number of compass bearings before retiring to the Wagon to lunch, drink tea and rest fevered brows and over-worked brains for a time.
Deciding that doing Skara Brae on the same day was too much, we drove to a marvellous clifftop WWII ex-gun post on the western coast named Yesnaby and collapsed to rest. A short walk gave us a fine set of views of the coast, some sunning seals, lots of seabird roosts and, on the way back, a pocketful of limpets hammered off the rocks with a pebble. We boiled them briefly in butter and Raven beer (a fine Orcadian brew) before consuming them with bread and butter. It was a very fine end to a magnificent day!