Friday 20th May.

After discussions last night plans were radically changed. Jane, James, Christine and Charlie were intending to go visit The Old Man of Hoy (which I have since found out to be 449ft high, my estimate was way out; I can only blame looking across a featureless sea and underestimating the distance,) from the landward side; a three hour walk.

Neither Rosie nor I wanted to do it in this weather. Also...Charlie's dog Guinness has taken crook, running loose at both ends with poos and spews, so Charlie wants to get him to a vet, and it was decided to change the air bookings to straight through, rather than the three of them spend four hours waiting on an island with more sheep than people for company

Stink weather this morning, (as it has been every day since we got here,) perishing cold wind-driven rain. So Charlie's off to the vet; the rest of us to go girl shopping in Kirkwall.
First stop Kirkwall airport to change the bookings.
Then lunch in Kirkwall
Away from there to a jewellery manufacturer, Sheilah Fleet at Tankerness.

In the meantime the weather got better and better; with rain clouds turning to blue skies...so another change of plan.
Let's go to Scara Brae, and Charlie can meet us there
So that's what we did.

Scara Brae was inhabited from around 3000 BC to 2600 - 2500 BC, and is the best preserved Neolithic village in Europe.

The quarter mile track to it is marked by historic landmarks...the first man on the moon. (just outside the gate,) the discovery of television, the first Crusade, the fall of the Roman Empire, the building of the Pantheon, the birth of Jesus, the building of the pyramids of Egypt, et cetera and et cetera, to... Scara Brae.
That really brought home the antiquity of this place.
The roundhouses are built entirely of stone; laid in the exact same fashion as a new stane dyke James and I looked at this very
morning at Sheilah Fleet's; that same skill is still being used unchanged 5000 years later.

Apparently the population varied between 50 - 100 people, and it is thought that there were other villages in relatively close proximity, enough to supply labour to build the henges etc.
The entrances were kept deliberately low (even though the Neolithic man was only a few inches shorter than modern man according to skeletons found,) in order to conserve heat. (Think Eskimo/igloo. Same theory.)

A fascinating afternoon, with lots of food for thought...not least of just how small and inconsequential we are as individuals...

Looking back over 5000 years there's one major conclusion to be drawn: Don't let the small things fash you; in the big scheme of things they don't matter a damn.