wideford

From the A966 head down towards Tingwall pier but take the LH road at the junction before this. By Midland looking to the near shore there is a long mound with a much smaller one a distance to its left. These are the Knowe of Midgarth (and cairn) and the Midland tumulus. There’s only a field or two between shore and road but I was on a tight schedule because of the time of year and having already spent ages at Tingwall. Also all I saw through binoculars was sere grass and turf – if I had seen the prominent stonework the camera saw and this had been summer I would have been in like a shot.

Coming up on the road from south to Stem Howe with a low autumn sun delineating the various shapes made by the knowes and picking out features on them. The whole is so much sculpted that it is no longer a moraine, if ever it was. Seem to be various levels too. Thought this to be only the upper part but this is an ilusion of time passing sentence on the steeper bits. Partway up the southern edge where it nears the the road the harsh sunlight brings into relief a low ridge, only a couple of feet across a few inches high, forming an edge to the mound as if to stop visitors falling unawares. This looks to stop just where the most man-alters bit starts. I notice it begins at the top end of a twisted rectangular hollow or depression, which doesn’t look to be from antiquarian investigation, though possibly a long scoop.

September 7th about one o’clock. Coming down Wasdale road from N. Past the traditional graveyard side [marked by a hut] the loch opens out and the bright overhead sun picks out figures in the loch, two (?conjoined) circles of dissimilar sizes on the side near the road and a long ?ellipse towards the other side and a little further north. First impression is that the gale is whipping waves that flush underlying vegeatation up to reflect underlying archaeology. But the camera later reveals that the plnts are actually a myriad small stones. Also the circles have a clear central space, so annular rings I suggest. An archaeo tells me thay in Skye exceptional conditions can bring crannogs into view. Alternately these have been mooted as fish traps of unknown age.
I have always thought that there should be a Neolithic settlement below Howe Harper, as with the Cuween and Wideford Hill Cairns. Just remembered that in a field S/SW of the loch thre is what could well be a dry version of the lochbed sites, after a prolonged period of rain it is marked by a shallow pool.

August 24th 2010
Went to Brodgar day before end of dig as though they have made lovely discoveries on last days much will be be going back under black plastic early on the day. Past Bridgend went around the back of the Kokna-Cumming mound to come upon the Lesser Wall of Brodgar from behind by a gentler slope. Glad they have realised that this is a late feature as otherwise what would one make of the Brodgar standing stone pair straddling its view eastwards and the tomb outside its supposed remit. To me the point of it is to face the Staneyhill Tomb – I forget what they call it in political science but it is like gardeners “borrowing a view” by bringing a further vista into the visitor’s eyeline. What does this mean for the hypothesis that the Greater Wall of Brodgar was meant to form a northern boundary to the whole Ness assemblage ? It doesn’t seem to have any similar alignment [and perhaps too thick to find a statistically valid one anyhow] but is it equally late, performing a non-liminal function yet to be identified. At the bottom of the Lesser Wall’s southern side there is now a pavement just under the level of the Wall base by the remains of what is to my eye another wall at a slight angle to the later Wall. Near the bottom of the Wall it looks to me as if there are what is left of two cruder walls parallel to one another over and at right angles to my putative earlier wall, and hence the pavement below. To my dismay the area of trench behind the Wall has still not been dug below the level of its top. Probably a “health and safety” thing. Here there are two arcs of collapsed wall, perhaps an inner and outer section. Not that this necessarily means one or both had not been straight when still standing. Oh, I can barely wait for their investigation. And then maybe sometime they can go down to the Wall base here to see if the Lesser Wall might be part of some other structure yet.
On to the main Ness of Brodgar site a bit of height not only gains you perspective but also frees you of photographing beige stone against beige stone and having to decipher it later ! First up is the new to this season next-to-roadside observation platform with a long ramp for wheelchair access. Then there are the large spoil heaps by the northern and western sides, as long as you don’t mind the shifting soil underfoot in places. The space between Lochview and the dig is too smaa for anything but a photographic tower for the bosses, so you can’t use that. It amazes me that at first glance it all looks practically the same as last time. Up on the platform on this side of the site the bulk is taken up by Structure 10 on your left with its, ahem, standing stone. No work is ongoing in the ‘cathedral’ now. In front of the platform’s near end Structure 8 is divine. Along the western edge are what I see as three sub-square interior cells but on plan I see are duplicated on the opposite side, forming two rectangular and one long oval sub-divisions of the whole. This is basically how it has looked since last year. But on my third visit of the season exterior to the northern wall at the trenches edge are (I think) three small strucures that make you think of mini-roundhouses. All this mixing of linear and circular or sub-circular forms throughout the site strike me as less a striving for a practical form [and/or effective ritual space] and more the search for an artistic vision, squaring the circle to put the art into architecture. Very nice, whatever. Next is the small Structure 7, pinned between 8 and the Structure 1+9 combo.
The latter can be seen from the first spoil heap. Up here the first thing you spot is a large circular wall arc [?9 – the structure plan on Orkneyjar is from the season’s start] in front of which work has been going on in a linear structure apparently leading up and terminating before it with what I take to be either a wide facade (pehaps fronting a courtyard entrance) or two flanking ?guard-cells. Looking left from this by the edge of the trench is a short length of low parallel orthostats that catch my eye but have been left behind for now.
From the top of the next spoil heap is a clear view of Structure 1, a large structure (oval or semi figure-of-eight) with rectangular niches or cells scattered along the interior edge. These are formed by the drystane walling (but multi-coloured) and tall thin orthostats. Near the trench edge to the right a double wall or pair of walls with pavement between them is nicely exposed. At the far end of the mound I look south to Structure 12, a large clean-looking oval with a couple of long cells. On my previous visit I only noticed the one nearest the spoil heap after I got back from an image taken near Lochview. That nearest the road looked as if someone had taken the Great Wall of Brodgar and removed the flesh to leave a rectangular skin.
The space between 12 and 10, or in 10, has three or four standing stones. I think they are roughly in a square. It is remarkable how many odd stones are scattered about the site, different in colour (red maks a change from beige) or shape (proper looking standing stones or blocky forms mostly). Not too much rhyme or reason for the most part, so I am thinking this is just a monumental version of picking up a pebble on a beach and taking it home.
All the above is only how I have this eclectic site in my mind’s eye. Carefully as they excavate still there are different stages in any season’s dig, structure’s co-mingle and turn out to be part of other’s. During an extended period of experimentation you can’t even sort features out by materials used. And any single structure can be such a glorious mix of drystane walls, slabs, orthostats and standing stones, along with what I might call exhibition pieces.
By the time I am done with all three cameras there are still twenty minutes until the next tour and I give a moment’s thought to tagging along for the display of new finds at its end. You are never sure what will be displayed or whether you will be able to take piccies, the latter depends on the group more than the presenter.

On the one hand there is a viewing platform at the east side of the dig, on the other a light fence has started going up around the dig itself. Finally the Lesser Wall is exposed again. They think they have reached the bottom, where there is a fine paved area revealed on the south side i.e. outside the archaeologists gargantuan temenos. Looking along the wall between the standing stone pair with my new super-duper camera I can confirm a definite alignment with the Staney Hill Tomb [there may be another site between them and some tumuli beyond but I shall stay with the certain]

To save a wee bitty on the legs take the 9A bus from Kirkwall Travel Centre to the Sunnybank Road where the new route starts – still climbing though