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<< County Introductions >> County Guides No.17 - Orkney

Submitted by howar on Saturday, 28 February 2004  Page Views: 4752

Neolithic and Bronze AgeCountry: Scotland County: Orkney
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Comet Stone (Orkney)
Comet Stone (Orkney) submitted by howar : Comet Stone group HY296133 Orkney (Vote or comment on this photo)
Home of the "Heart of Orkney" World Heritage area, the Orkney Isles is widely held to be the most densely packed area of surviving archaeological remains in Britain. Most famous are the Ring of Brodgar, The Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe chambered tomb, all in this area.

There are many islands apart from Mainland, including the chambered tomb 'mecca' of Rousay. Public transport is rather patchy and irregular even on Mainland in summer, so unless you have a car a fair bit of rambling is required.

The Orkney Isles were first inhabited in the Mesolithic but rising sea levels have left us scant remains from this period. In the Neolithic came the stone circles and the great chambered tombs. From the Iron Age we have the many broch remains around our coasts e.g. Broch of Gurness. Literary evidence of Roman exploration on land is sparse and much disputed. After the Picts came the Viking settlements (eg Gurness again), with this being one of the few agreed instances where one population replaced another, though this is the exception that proves the rule as Pict Orcadians had died out just previous to the first Norse intrusions.

It may be the early wood clearances that lead to the survival of so many sites. The only native woodland is on island of Hoy (where there is the massive rock-cut tomb ‘The Dwarfie Stane’). For the visitor, and even many islanders, a big problem is simply how many places have the same name or slight variants, plus names being on the map but unidentified on the ground and vice versa. With so many sites in very close proximity and identically named it can help to use CANMAP on the RCAHMS website for finding every site that exists.


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"County Guides No.17 - Orkney" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: County Guides No.17 - Orkney by howar on Saturday, 12 November 2005
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In the Orkney Room there is a black box on a shelf in the far corner that contains the record cards for our NMRS up till the early 70's. This contains more information than online CANMORE as that in places only gives a bibliographical reference instead of actual quote. Some of the cards also include maps,sketches, plans, photos. Though these are all in reduced form only the photos can occasionally less than usual. The 1946 RCAMS Inventory is also here along with the standard work on Orkney's chambered cairns (not the most recent version) and Hedge's volume on our brochs (only detailed for those he accepts but very detailed for these, including plans,sketches,photos).
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