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West Mainland Image © Andrew Appleby (done by wideford) See individual sites for details Added by TMA Ed News (1) Images (3) Fieldnotes (1) 0 discussions Start a topic Show  |  Hide Web searches for West Mainland Flickr Google Google Images Stone Pages Wikipedia

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a Wideford Hill site re-discovered ? "Orkney Today" and "The Orcadian" of June 4th 2009 report the discovery of a potential tomb at Heathfield, beehive shaped and built straight into the bedrock. There is a lintelled space opposite the corbelled cell... continues... Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by wideford 4th June 2009ce Edited 4th June 2009ce

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BROUGH OF BIRSAY SAFE CROSSING Radio Orkney has discontinued their early morning tide times for tourists to reach the Brough of Birsay. Their system took three-and-a-half hours off the Kirkwall low tide and then allowed five hours for safe crossing. Ocassionally this proved conservative but on very rare occasions folk still got stuck. The reports will be resumed when/if a more reliable method is found. Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by wideford 13th May 2010ce

Ness of Brodgar (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) — News

Archaeologists and pagans alike glory in the Brodgar complex Interesting article written in the Guardian by Liz Williams, though I found the original link on Heritage Daily; Archaeologists are notoriously nervous of attributing ritual significance to anything (the old joke used to be that if you found an artefact and couldn't identify it, it had to have ritual significance), yet they still like to do so whenever possible. I used to work on a site in the mid-1980s – a hill fort in Gloucestershire – where items of potential religious note occasionally turned up (a horse skull buried at the entrance, for example) and this was always cause for some excitement, and also some gnashing of teeth at the prospect of other people who weren't archaeologists getting excited about it ("And now I suppose we'll have druids turning up"). The Brodgar complex has, however, got everyone excited. It ticks all the boxes that make archaeologists, other academics, lay historians and pagans jump up and down. Its age is significant: it's around 800 years older than Stonehenge (although lately, having had to do some research into ancient Britain, I've been exercised by just how widely dates for sites vary, so perhaps some caution is called for). Pottery found at Stonehenge apparently originated in Orkney, or was modelled on pottery that did. The site at the Ness of Brodgar – a narrow strip of land between the existing Stone Age sites of Maeshowe and the Ring of Brodgar – is massive: the size of five football pitches and circled by a 10ft wall. Only a small percentage of it has been investigated; it is being called a "temple complex", and researchers seem to think that it is a passage complex – for instance, one in which bones are carried through and successively stripped (there is a firepit across one of the doors, and various entrances, plus alcoves like those in a passage grave, which are being regarded as evidence for this theory – but it's a bit tenuous at present). Obviously, at this relatively early stage, it's difficult for either professional archaeologists or their followers to formulate too many firm theories. When it comes to the pagan community, I don't think that its sounder members will be leaping to too many conclusions too soon; as discussed in a previous column, some of us would prefer to rely on the actual evidence rather than rushing off at a tangent. I cannot help wondering whether the relatively muted response across the pagan scene to the Brodgar findings has to do with the fact that the central artefact discovered so far –" the "Brodgar Boy" – is apparently male rather than female. I am cynical enough to wonder whether, if it had been a northern Venus, there would be much more in the way of rash speculation about ancient matriarchies. Will we see the pagan community flocking to Orkney at the solstices? I doubt it. Orkney is a long way off and rather difficult to get to, whereas Stonehenge and Avebury are with a reasonably easy drive if you happen to live in the south of the country. In the days when the site was at its peak, most traffic would have been coastal, and remained so for hundreds of years to come. (And to be fair, many modern pagans aren't actually too keen on trampling over ancient sites, sacred or otherwise, due to awareness of their relative fragility). With regard to the "boy" himself, and other ancient representations of the human form, we simply don't know why people made them. Maybe they are gods, goddesses, spirits. Maybe they're toys, or lampoons of particular individuals, or just someone doing some carving in an idle moment. It's hardly a startling theory that, throughout history, people have made stuff for fun: I've always been very amused by Aztec pots made in the shape of comical animals, looking for all the world like the early precursor to Disney and somewhat at variance with the sombre bloodiness of other aspects of that culture. As soon as the Bronze Age arrived, Brodgar was completely abandoned. There was apparently a mass slaughter of cattle, which would have fed as many as 20,000 people on the site; this is being taken by some experts as evidence of a complete and sudden cultural replacement. But whether it has ritual significance or not, the sheer size, age and numbers involved with the Orkney site make it of immense importance to the history of ancient Britain. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/31/archaeologists-pagans-brodgar-complex http://www.heritagedaily.com/2012/01/archaeologists-and-pagans-alike-glory-in-the-brodgar-complex/ Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by moss 1st February 2012ce

Leafea (Standing Stones) — Miscellaneous

When Stromness was planked in 1765 Innertoun was divided from Outertoun by "a line from the March Stone at the goe of Stinnigar and upwards to the March Stone at the west corner of Pressquoy, and from that in a crook eastward to the top of the Green Hillock, and from thence upwards through the middle of the Green Gate leading up to John Stout's house called Gentle June [Gentlejohnshouse a.k.a. Castle (near Hillcrest) croft now abandoned HY236101]." At first I though the Green Hillock must be Brockan chambered mound, but that is westward. Another possibility is a mound S of Wester Leafea. But this is a "natural sandy knoll" rather (site of the Innertown cist HY20NW 3. Which leaves the Leafea standing stone pair as the only candidate for Green Hillock, the march stones those I saw coming up. Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by wideford 26th November 2011ce

Ring of Bookan (Henge) — Fieldnotes

The Ring of Bookan is easily missed, or at least I found it so when I visited the site in late July 2009, though I will blame the long grass of course. It's an important though probably over passed site unless one knows it's there (minus the long grass). The Bookan henge lacks two features common to Brodgar and Stenness - an entrance causeway and outer bank. These, however, could easily have fallen victim to ploughing and farming over the centuries. Within the ditch are a number of stones and a rough mound. It has been suggested that this is the remains of a cairn, but this remains speculation Latter info source: Orkneyjar/Ring of Bookan. My videos & photosgraphs at: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ring%20of%20bookan Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

Comet Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images (click to view fullsize)

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

Ring of Brodgar (Stone Circle) — Images

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

Ring of Brodgar (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes

Weather on Orkney is fickle, yes that's the word. This video taken in April 2010 during a field trip to the Brodgar henge was a precursor for a dash back to the bus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrianterror/4546626566/ Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

The Standing Stones of Stenness (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes

Approach to the Stones of Stenness during a field trip to Orkney in April 2010, it was BALTIC!!!, that said Stenness, & Brodgar almost made it worthwhile. Imuch prefer these sites in the warmth though like I did months later. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrianterror/4543646741/ Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

Ring of Brodgar (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes

Approach to the Ring of Brodgar, 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrianterror/3829897294/ Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce

Unstan (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes

Interior video of the Unstan Cairn taken on my last day on Orkney mid August 2009 which up for the Ness of Brodgar dig & related sundries. This was a grand day's culmination walk from the main road to Stenness,Barnhouse, N.o.B., Brodgar to the Ring of Bookan, then back & out to Unstan. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrianterror/3829823392/ Comments (0)  |  Add a comment  |  Permalink

Posted by Tyrianterror 14th November 2011ce