Remembering Orkney in Paris

So, I went to Orkney Island. Before Dublin. Before seeing much of the Lake District besides a quick stop at Lake Windermere. I had to go to Orkney mainly due to Simon Schama's History of Britain. There are many places he goes to showcase the incredible breadth of the history of the British Isles and one of the first places he goes is the Neolithic village of Skara Brae on Orkney Island. He shows how incredibly intact this village was found buried in sand on the west coast of Orkney Island looking out at the Atlantic. I have now been there and it was incredible to think of people living 5 or 6 thousand years ago on this cold desolate island in the North Atlantic. It was beautiful and remote. The World Heritage sites I have been to have probably never been so sparse of people and these ones are older than the pyramids. We could walk right up and touch the standing stones in the Ring of Brodgar and were allowed inside a Neolithic burial mound that Vikings had already broken into and carved runic graffiti on. Vikings considered this place old and ancient. We walked around the ancient village of Skara Brae at a respectful distance because of the fragility, but we were allowed into a newer broch. A broch is a ruin of a village with a central core building or house. The Broch of Gurness was built during the Iron Age, so recent compared to the Neolithic ruins. But it was still old and the very fact that I could get inside of a dark hole, or storage room most likely, built in the Iron Age is a bit too much to comprehend. These stones were laid around the birth of Christ and I can climb all over them!

The island was very sparsely populated and we rented a car to drive around. The only car they had was a older manual Jaguar station wagon. Luckily Kitz got to drive because I would not have been able to drive a manual on the wrong side. But we got to traverse many one lane dirt roads in our quest to see World Heritage sites. It was so lovely and remote from the crowds that I am now a part of in Paris. I think there were more people in Notre Dame than the whole Orkney Island. I am missing the remote beauty but not the freezing cold weather. Summer has not yet come to Orkney.