Maes Howe entrance and cairn

Yesnaby cliffs

Yesnaby cliffs

View from Yesnaby cliffs

 

We have booked a tour of Maeshowe burial cairn at 1.30pm, that gives us the morning free, so first we go to the Ring of Brodgar, a circle of over 100 standing stones made from the now-familiar Caithness quarried flagstone. It sits on a hillside in the heather, where it has sat for 5000 years, probably moved here from three sites along the coast by dragging the individual stones on seaweed (I guess it is slippery).

This ancient circle links with a single comet stone and probably with other ancient sites nearby. It is older than Stonehenge, but probably fulfils a similar purpose. After lunch we drive a few miles up the road to the meeting point for Maes Howe and find a couple we know who live at Kendal and are also visiting The Orkney Islands in their motorhome  (small world…!

We travel the few minutes up the road on the bus to the burial cairn which is reached by walking across a field. Access is by a 10m tunnel through which you walk bent over, it's VERY easy to bang your head on the roof, I did, it hurts.

Inside it is small (only room for about 20 of stood close together) but perfectly preserved and built like the ancient ‘beehives’ with ever decreasing circles of stone for the roof.

Over the years it has been covered with soil and then grass, thus preserved for about 5000 years. I find it hard to imagine people buried here before the time that Joseph was in Egypt or Moses receiving the ten commandments. Later we walk around the small circle of standing stones at Stenness and walk up to the prehistoric settlement of Barnhouse. We reflect that this area is covered with ancient settlements, they are everywhere.

We drive west to the coast to the small village of Yesnaby and then up and up to the old WW2 lookout Battery on the cliffs, it's a narrow road that winds out to the cliffs.

It is busy with cars, but we park just round the corner of the battery itself, absolutely level and a fantastic view across the sea. We walk up to the cliffs and sit on the rocks and watch the birds: fulmar, gannet, great skua, guillemot, shag, razor bills and puffin. We have a quiet night of it as there is only us and another camper left by 10.00pm.

One of the great things about travelling in a motorhome is that you get to stay overnight in isolated locations like this. You can watch the sun sink slowly over the sea whilst you listen to seabirds and think about the ancient peoples who did the same thing thousands of years ago.

Summary of motorhome journey