Spiral Journey: Neolithic Orkney

It is a delight and honour to take part in the Monica Sjöö Curatorial winter artist in residence programme for Instagram. As part of the programme I will share my experiences, photography and illustrations while embarking on my own 'Spiral Journey' inspired by the writings and art of Monica Sjöö. Each journey is both physical and spiritual and encompasses pilgrimages to ancient and sacred sites in my home country of Scotland and further afield. This second spiral journey takes me north to an archipelago brimming with ancient magic...

Sailing North 

Pages from my travel journal

The late afternoon ferry from Aberdeen arrives at Kirkwall just after 11pm. As it was late July however, the sky was not pitch black but a deep blue, the luminous sea reflecting the waxing moon. Great dark mounds of land rose out of the waters like giant sperm whales and my heart leapt with excitement on the realisation that I was sailing through an archipelago - it felt good to be exploring islands again.
 
The huge Northlink ferry with its bearded blue Viking pointing the way north was now making its way through channels once traversed by longships and was transporting me to a land once fortified by Pictish tribes and long before that, neolithic peoples who dwelt in stone houses, raised colossal stones to greet the stars and buried their dead in chambered cairns.
 
I don’t know for sure whether Monica Sjöo ever made it to Orkney – I do know that she visited Calanais on the Isle of Lewis and climbed the ‘sleeping beauty’ hill range – but I am sure she would have been impressed by the Neolithic riches of the archipelago, not to mention the evident Norse identity, which would have been so familiar to her.
 

An Illustrated Journal

I kept a concertina sketchbook of my trip to Orkney, taking in the ancient sites, objects and folkloric landscape I encountered. this article is illustrated with some of those drawings.

Before we began our pilgrimage to one of the many Neolithic wonders on the ‘Mainland’ we visited a local craft market in Kirkwall. A man selling carved stones had a convincing theory that all or most of the standing stones would have been carved and in such a way which would have appeared rather psychedelic. 5000 years of wind and weather slowly worn the carvings away. Whether true or not, I liked the idea and bought a carved stone ball from him. It reminded me of the stones balls you see in Museums in Scotland, like the Towie ball. I also bought a pebble with the runic ᚠ (fehu) carved on it.
 

Temple of the Moon
the Stone of Stenness

We caught the bus to Stromness and asked the driver to drop us off at a crossroads just before the village of Stennes and walked no more than a mile down the road to visit our first ancient monument; the Stones of Stenness, which form part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. Once a circle of 12 stones, there are now only four left standing left, 3 of which are a colossal height of 6 metres. It is said that the Stenness was a temple to the moon while the Ring of Brodgar down the road was a temple to the sun. We did not realise how lucky we were to have these impressive stones to ourselves before a bus load of tourists were dropped off. We stopped for a quick snack, sitting on the grass under the warm summer sun.
 
The Ring of Brodgar is enormous by comparison – 36 stones of the original 60 are still standing in a circle 130m across and surrounded by a rock cut ditch. Every time I visit a stone circle, I like to touch the stones as a way of communing with them. As I reached out to touch one at this site, I heard an obnoxious ‘Excuse me! You’re not supposed to touch the stones!’ from an irate tourist behind me. I haughtily replied that there are no trespassing laws in Scotland and these sacred sites belong to everyone. She then seemed to suggest that my touching these stones – which have stood for 5000 years - would add to their erosion! Later, we realised there was a sign asking visitors not to traverse the ditch because that was what they were trying to preserve – not the stones themselves – we simply hadn’t seen the sign. It put a bit of a dampener on the visit and I was realising how important it would be for me to visit sacred sites alone - if at all possible - in future.
 

Archaeologists at the Ness of Brodgar

Scratch the surface in Orkney and it bleeds archaeology, as the saying goes, and this is certainly true at the Ness of Brodgar. I am grateful to my cousin for finding out that there was an open day at the famous Ness of Brodgar archaeological dig, on the very day of our visit. The dig, which is now in its 20^th year, stands on the strip of land between two lochs and the stones of Stenness and Brodgar. They have uncovered what seems to be some sort of temple, similar to the one found at Skara Brae, but different in that it seemed to be more than a dwelling place and perhaps used for ceremonial purposes. The archaeologists stressed that this was a place of riches and the people were sophisticated and knowledgeable. In the make-shift gift shop they were selling clay Neolithic 'House Goddesses', inspired by the votive figurines found at Neolithic sites such as the Westray Wifey. A lot of merchandise boasted the ‘butterfly’ motif, which had been found incesed on numerous stones unearthed at the site.
 
In Spiral Journey Sjöö wrote:
 
‘Recent excavations on the Shetland Islands and on the Orkneys have uncovered Neolithic dwellings that can only be called ‘Goddess Houses’. The dwellings are contained within thick outer walls, which are egg-shaped, and Her body is described by the chambers inside. The entrance corresponds to the vulva. The best known Goddess, as temple and habitation, is at Skara Brae in the Orkneys. These are reminiscent of the Goddess temples on Malta and at New Grange.’
 

The stone dresser at Skara Brae

It was more than illuminating for me to see these famous stone houses – or 'Goddess houses' with my own eyes. I marvelled at the ingenious way the local stone was used to make household furniture such as the Orkney dresser. I recalled that Mary Beith wrote in The Scots Herbal that the shrivelled outer skins of a particular type of puffball mushroom were found in large quantities at Skara Brae which pointed to its use in healing. The spores of the mushroom can be used as a form of anaesthetic. These were sophisticated people with knowledge in healing as well as an deep understanding of the cycles of the moon and the stars.
 

A Land of Stories

 

Peatfire tales at the Orkney
Folklore and Storytelling Centre

As my cousin from the US and her partner accompanied me on this trip, a visit to the Orkney Folklore and Storytelling Centre was an absolute must. We have a shared interest in folklore – me being an amateur and her having specialised in the subject at college. We booked an evening of Peatfire Tales with storyteller Lynn Barbour. A talented tradition bearer with a wealth of island lore, Lynn brought the magic of the islands to life with her expressive and theatrical storytelling style. She spoke of the waves of influence found here from people of the past starting with the Neolithic people, who gave way to the ‘beaker people' of the Bronze Age, from whom emerged the Pictish tribes, who were in turn invaded and colonised by the Vikings, who then made way for the Scots Earls who attempted to feudalise the land - following hundreds of years under Norwegian rule – until 1472 when it was absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland. 
 
Orkney has its own unique folkloric landscape; trows, finfolk, hogboons and stoorworms abound along with fairies, giants and selkies. The ancient cairns are the dwelling places of the fairies and trows – fiddlers should beware for the wee folk are fond of music and they offer their guests their delicious heather ale – one night in their company can last many years in the human world. In the Orcadian tradition standing stones are petrified giants or fairies and the now deserted Isle of Eynehalow is an enchanted island prone to disappear.

A folkloric landscape

We should give credit to the Orcadians of yesteryear for associating the ancient sites with fairies for there is an unearthly atmosphere in these places. Even to this day people have strange experiences - at the Ring of Brodgar for example, people visiting after dusk have encountered fairy fires, seen tall dark guardian spirits and experienced time warps. The same tall dark ‘guardians’ have also been reported at ancient sites in Ireland too.

The tall dark guardians of the Ring of Brodgar

For me however there were no profound experiences, there was a lot of fun and conversation and plenty to satisfy my curiosity and inspire my pen. We had to rush about in buses and taxis in an attempt to squeeze in as much as possible. My next pilgrimage would have be made alone...

A Pictish Broch

Reference Library:

Spiral Journey: States of an Initiation into Her Mysteries by Monica Sjöö, published 2018 by Antenna Publications

Healing Threads: Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands by Mary Beith, published 1995 by Polygon, Edinburgh