Kirkwall, ancient homes, and a cathedral

There is a fully equipped gymnasium onboard - I visited it yesterday - empty. Given the many opportunities to over-eat regular exercise is essential to maintain a healthy BMI. So far we've spent much of our time seated on coaches. I fear for my BMI and that of my fellow passengers.

Yesterday we did the Orkneys, the main island, in a coach, with a trip back to the Neolithic settlements and standing stones. We first visited Skara Brae a group of homes uncovered following a violent storm in the winter of 1850. You can see where IKEA got their design ideas from:

Today the site is next to the beach of the inlet, five thousand years ago it would have been well inland the sea level being lower as the ice sheet covering much of Northern Europe had yet to melt. Rising sea levels and climate change now put this world Heritage site at risk.

"The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with the mastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation."

We next headed for one of those stone ringy things, the Ring of Brodgar which is older than Stonehenge but not as impressive. I'm afraid no matter how much the tour guide enthuses about the immense distances the stones were dragged, how the stone was mined using reindeer antlers and was moved on seaweed to me they're just lumps of rock placed in a circle. 

What is fascinating is the explosion of a thriving, innovative Neolithic community in the Orkneys. 

Then to St Magnus's cathedral in Kirkwall - built over 300 years from 1137. As so often happens some poor unfortunate is slaughtered by a nasty guy. In this case Magnus a pious, peace-loving man was, after a disagreement with the guy he shared lordship over the Orkneys, killed by a chef with an axe. Mangus was buried and after a series of miracles he was canonised, and the cathedral was built in Kirkwall and his bones moved there. The cathedral was built by stone masons from Durham, who having finished the cathedral there looked around for gainful employment and heard that there was a job going in the Orkneys. After the reformation, the shrine to Magnus was destroyed and his bones went missing. Everyone thought they'll been thrown away but during restoration work in 1919 a cask containing a man's bones including a skull were found hidden away. The skull had an axe injury - and it was believed the bones were that of St Mangus.

It is a magnificent Norman styled Cathedral which does not belong to the Church of Scotland, but to the Orcadians.

After a busy day we headed back to our ship and in the evening slipped our anchor and set sail for the Faroes where we're to spend a few days exploring its islands.