Orkneys

• The Orkney Islands are an archipelago of 70 islands that lie 10 miles (16km) across the Pentland Firth opposite Caithness in Northern Scotland.
• They are also known as the Orkneys and were referred to by Tacitus as the ‘Orcades’.

History

• The Norwegian King Harald the Fair Hair annexed the Orkney and Shetland Islands in 875 CE and they remained Norwegian possessions until they were officially ceded to the Scottish Kings in 1472 CE.

Orkney Monuments

There are many Megalithic Stones from the Bronze Age located on the islands.

• Knap of Howar (c.3,700 BCE)
  • A stone building probably a farm, it was built in 3,700 BCE on the island of Papa Westray.

• Skara Brae (c.3,200-2,500 BCE)
  • A Neolithic village of eight stone houses forming a village built earlier than the Pyramids, and occupied between 3,100-2,500 BCE, also on Mainland.

• Standing Stones of Stenness (c.3,000 BCE)
  • The remains of a circular Henge Monument with originally 12 standing stones formed into an ellipse, of which only 4 stones remain today.

• Maeshowe (c.2,800 BCE)
  • A Passage Grave inside a large Mound, where the Sun aligns into the inner chamber on the Winter Solstice.

• Ring of Brodgar (c.2,500-2,000 BCE)
  • This is the remains of a Henge Monument with originally 60 stones set in a circle, of which only 27 remain today. It is the largest Stone Circle in Scotland, located on the biggest island called Mainland.

Iron Age Sites

• Brochs
  • These are circular stone towers built between 100 BCE and 100 CE, found on the Orkneys, the Shetland Islands and the Inner Hebrides and the Outer Hebrides.

Ancient Sources

• The Orkney Islands (Orcades) are mentioned by:
  • Diodorus Siculus (c.90-30 BCE)
    • First mention of Orkas as the third point of the triangular island of Britain jutting into the ocean.
  • Pomponius Mela (d.c.45 CE)
    • First to use the name ‘Orcades’ on his maps. He quoted Pytheus of Massilia who circumnavigated Britain in c.325 BCE.
  • Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE)
    • Mentiones the Orcades in Natural History Book IV chap. 30.
  • Tacitus (56-120 CE)
    • Mentions the Orcades as being discovered and conquered in 84 CE, after the Battle of Mons Graupius.
  • Ptolemy's Geographia (c.150 CE)
    • He marked ‘Tarvedrum quod Orcas’ as a headlong at the top of the map of Britannia.

Orkney Islands