Shetland - the end is nigh

I'm getting bored with the Shetland posts now - time to move on. We visited a lot more sites over the last 2 days of the trip so here is a whistle stop tour and I promise something different for next week!

Firstly then the Giants Grave and tomb

Nicely weathered pink granite standing stone. Fairly accessible being close to the road but set in a very boggy piece of ground....

This is the burial tomb- now almost completely collapsed and resembling  a pile of tinned pink salmon. ( well it does - sorry)

On now to Esherness. This had some of the most spectacular scenery we saw. Here is just a taste. Worth visiting Shetland just for this. The wind though was incredibly strong and I've never seen water blown back UP a waterfall before.

and a little further inland.

and finally the obligatory broch. Nicely situated this one, right on the banks of a small loch. Unlike many it has a fairly sheltered position, the surrounding undulating headland would deflect much of the wind.

Leaving Northmavine and heading back south we visited Lerwick and Clickimin Broch. Heavily reconstructed it is still a powerful site. However a bit of an anti climax after Mousa!

Lastly a random standing stone - don't ask me where this is. It seems to have lost its tags. If anyone recognises please let me know

A trip into the Arctic

Leaving Unst it was time to head to Northmavine, our final couple of days in the Shetland Isles.

Northmavine is home to the highest point of Shetland so up we had to go - right to the top of Ronas Hill. The sign that greets you tells you all about it - how it is as high as the Arctic Tundra and home to many  rare species.

The sight that greets you is desolate indeed. Piles of fractured red granite lie all around and it is not hard to imagine oneself as a polar explorer.  The climb up isn't too bad

  An hour or two later I got my reward  - a very nice neolithic  burial chamber. Don't be fooled by the blue sky, it was cold, very cold, in fact so cold.....

.... that the inside of the chamber was filled with snow.










If you do climb Ronas Hill  make sure that you sign the guest book. It is not at the burial mound but at a modern feature not very far away - the OS trig point. I wonder how many make it to the top and don't find the book?
Coming down as usual took less time than going up so we had time to go for some lunch and then consider what to do afterwards.  A study of the map showed a fairly inaccessible neolithic axe factory and another burial site. It was rather a long way from anywhere but we had nothing better to do so we thought we'd attempt to find it. The map reference was not terribly clear and with no Internet signal to pick up  the coordinates needed to program the GPS, it was rather uncertain if we'd actually find it.

Finding it was a bit of a challenge.

 An axe factory really is just a pile of rocks. The only differentiating feature here was that the rock was different from the red granite so it was fairly clear where it was. However it was a long walk across the steep sides of a hill, again I wished I was one of the native Haggis with one leg shorter than the other!

Finding the axe factory was simple compared with finding the burial chamber. In the end we split up and combed the hill side. Even then we almost missed it!

It was now starting to rain - we'd been lucky up til then so it was the long trudge back to the car. At least all down hill.

Shetland - St Ninian and a White Staine

Day two and the wind is so strong that the ferry to Mousa isn't running - must be bad then! Plans hastily rearranged and a few other things added.

St Ninian's Isle is connected to the mainland by a tombolo - that strip of sand. It is only completely covered at very high tides so access to the island is almost always possible.

Although the sky is blue look at the rain storm heading our way! It hit when we were about half way across.

The island has some spectacular cliffs which are home to seabirds. The cliffs are precipitous and with a howling gale blowing I had visions of taking flight off the edge..... The sea really did look that blue

Blown back to the tombolo we came across the ruins of St Ninian's chapel. This is 12 century  but remains of a pre Norse site were also found.

The Chapel is famous for the discovery of a cache of 8 century CE  secular silver which was discovered literally marked with a cross. We were able to see copies of the treasure which is ranked as some of the finest Scottish silver found in the museum at Lerwick; the originals are now in Edinburgh.


Next on the list was a more demanding walk. In Scotland there is a general "right to roam" so provided you cause no damage you can walk just about anywhere; no need to stick to footpaths or get the landowner's permission first. We took full advantage of this to climb up to a burial mound overlooking Mousa Sound.

Our objective was not visible from the road so leaving Zebedee in a convenient layby we trusted the map and headed up. And up. And up.

We were able to follow a farm track for some of the way but still had to clamber up some very steep grassy hillside. I now understand why the wild haggis has the legs on one side of its body shorter than the other.  4 legs and the ability to emulate a mountain goat would have been useful. Fortunately although there were plenty of wire fences, barbed wire is rare and they were easily negotiated.

Finally we got to our objective and drew breath. It is now just a grassy rocky mound but definitely worth the climb. 

Nearby according to the map was a feature marked as "white staine". I wonder if we could spot it from the cairn?







 Ah so not so far away then- or so it seemed. In reality the intervening land is a good wet peat bog and avoiding it meant a surprisingly long detour but we got there eventually.

 Rather rashly we decided to make a round trip and try and find the "grey staine" but time was passing and after negotiating too many  peat bogs we headed back down hill to the car without success.

In the footsteps of the builders of Stonehenge Pt 3 Pentre Ifan

So stop or not? Tired and hungry and rather reaching the stage when we'd seen enough stones for the day the decision swung back and forth until we concluded that if we didn't we'd only regret it so we did!

It was rather further than the signs indicted but we got there at last. Plenty of parking and the site  is not visible form the road but clearly signed by the ever helpful Cadw.

This is a very popular site but as it was now late afternoon the last of the visitors were leaving and we soon had the place to  ourselves - other than a pair of young lambs who had found a way through the fence,

Dating from around 3500 BCE this is another dolmen type burial tomb although no trace of burial has been found.  It has an unusual N-S orientation and the location is just beautiful. A wonderful place to be interred.

There  are plenty of local legends associated with the site- the Twylwth Teg are apparently to be found here although despite it being an auspicious time of day and close to the equinox we  didn't meet any...

W.Y. Evans Wentz, 1911 had this to say in his book written in 1911 The Fairy Faith in Celtic countries

"The region, the little valley on whose side stands the Pentre Ifan cromlech, the finest in Britain, is believed to have been a favourite place with the ancient Drulds. And in the oak groves (Ty Canol Wood) that still exist there, tradition says there was once a flourishing school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead of being a place for internments or sacrifices was in those days completely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in which novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of days....the interior (of Pentre Ifan) being called the womb or court of Ceridwen".

In the footsteps of the builders of Stonehenge

Picture a nice sunny Saturday morning and the following conversation:

Fancy a trip away?
Where?
Presilli
Presilli?
Presilli
OK.

We both had commitments in the morning so it was mid afternoon before we left ( having taken the precaution of booking a B&B on line before we left).

Getting late when we arrived at the second B&B - so much for on line booking ( Thanks MyUK.travel - won't bother using you again) so the first priority was something to eat.

Our hostess recommended the Tafarn Sinc just up the road in the quaintly named village  Rosebush. She said it was a hard to miss  red painted tin hut - she wasn't joking.

Inside was like stepping back in time - complete with sawdust on the floor and a Welsh male voice choir singing the old staples as back ground music. It was pretty busy there but we managed to get a table in the bar and some food.

Not sure if the hams hanging from the rafters were real of plastic...

Strangely as soon as we arrived everyone else seemed to depart!

The building apparently was a basic hotel built to support the railway line used for ferrying slate out of the local mines.


The current owner has recreated the station itself at the bottom of the garden complete with figures and a recording of steam engines...



At this point we went back to our B&B to work out a plan for the morning. The UK clocks went back as well so it meant getting up an hour "earlier". I'm still feeling the effects of that so  part 2 of this blog will have to wait until tomorrow.

Watch this space :-)

Where Eagles dare or die?

Still  with Orkney ( only a couple more blogs on the subject and normality will resume. If anything is normal of course)


South of the mainland on South Ronaldsay, over a couple of  WWII causeways is the Tomb of the Eagles ( Isbister Chambered Cairn) . Unlike the other tombs  we visited this one is privately owned and there is an admission charge.

On the plus side you do get a "guided tour" which is actually a very nice lady in the main building/museum who tells you all about the site and how it was discovered and excavated. Even better you are encouraged to pick up and handle some of the tools and beads that were discovered. It was a humbling experience to hold tools that were used 5000 years ago. We also learned how to bore a hole through rock with the technology then available. I'm tempted to have a go myself at a later date. Modern  reconstructions have shown it takes abut 6 hours or so.

It is  estimated to have been built around 3000 BCE, and used  over a period of some 800 years. It is about 3.5 metres high and consists of a rectangular main chamber, divided into stalls and side cells. It has been  reconstructed  in parts and re-roofed.

Over 300 sets of human remains were found here. A couple of the skulls are in the site museum and the guide explains the gene linked deformity suffered by some of the tribe members where the bones of the skull fused too soon.

As the bones were all mixed up and the skulls found separately from the rest of the bodies, the theory goes that the bodies were left in the open to be picked clean of flesh by the eagles and the excarnated bones then interred.

Talons of the white-tailed sea eagle s were found inside the tomb which gives rise to the modern  common name.  It has been mooted that the birds were the emblem of the tribe.

 It is a reasonable ( unescorted) walk from the visitor centre to the site itself which is right on the cliff top. Some of the bones were painted with ochre which was abundent locally and there is still plenty to be seen. The entrance as can be seen from the first picture is extremely low.

Previous sites we visited had low entrances but this was the lowest yet.

Bending double is not enough- You can just see the wheeled board by which you pull yourself through by a usefully placed rope or as the guide said  "a granny's skateboard"!

Maeshowe - Wow!

Another "must see" in Orkney is Maeshowe. Unlike everywhere else we went, entry is by pre-booked guided tour and photography inside the mound is forbidden. So if you want more  pictures try here.

Note that cloudless blue sky!







Inside is a large central room covered in graffiti  from when the Vikings broke in through the roof to take shelter. The runes are impressive in their quantity if not in the quality of what they convey. As much of it would be at home on a modern bus shelter it is proof that human nature isn't much changed!

The guide was able to show us the famous viking cave art - is the animal a lion?, a dragon? or even a cow? Hard to say. Orkney silversmiths though label it a dragon as dragons sell better than cows! One theory is it is a wolf, representing Fenrir.


There is some carving that is believed to be neolithic which she pointed out to us. There is no lighting in the mound so it is just ambient light from the doorway and  a torch to highlight some of the more famous runic carvings - such as "Tholfir Kolbeinsson carved these runes very high up."   I did say this was bus shelter stuff!  Another says modestly "These runes were carved by the man who is the best carver of runes in the Western Oceans" You can just imagine how disappointed the runic experts must have been when they originally translated them.

The entry tunnel is orientated in such a way that the rays on the sun at sunset on the winter solstice will illuminate the chamber.  The effect is also seen for a period either side of the solstice. Tune in  here  in December for a live web feed.


No pictures inside Maeshowe then but plenty from the other chambered tombs.

This is Unstan. From the outside it looks very similar but it is much much smaller with fabulous views across the  Loch of Stenness

Inside, the circular interior ( like Maeshowe), is divided by flagsones into stalls. Several skeletons were exhumed during excavation.

There is also a  small side chamber where two crouched burials were found.

This tomb is much better lit than others thanks to the thoughtfully fitted skylight in the ( modern) roof.

When is a hill not a hill? That is the question....

Right after last week's wash out  Mynydd y Garth it was, come hell or high water!   Immortalised in the film  The Englishman who went up a Hill but came down a Mountain,  is it tall enough to be a mountain or is it a mere hill? 

This was our first view of it from the bridge in Taff Wells after having left the car near the railway station. I was now starting to have second thoughts about this as I'm not a great lover of climbing steep hills ( or mountains!) Still as it was my idea in the first place I wasn't getting out of it that easily.

Nearly 2 hours later and the top is in view. The actual trig point is on top of an early Bronze age burial mound  (estimated at 2000BCE) which is considered to be the source of the tale and is officially 1007ft so - yes a mountain!

The burial mound is getting badly damaged by the number of visitors it gets and there were 3 or 4 mountain bikers cycling over it when we arrived.  A deep gouge ( path)  worn into the side bears mute witness to the stream of visitors. There are a number of smaller circular mounds nearby but they are dwarfed by the main one.


The view from the top must be magnificent  on a clear day. We could just about make out the turrets of Castell Coch rising from the mist, along with the second Severn crossing and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

We took another route down - much steeper and very badly eroded in places  but the views were magnificent. The path took us down into that pine forest before we ended up back at the car in Taff Wells.

The total route was about 5 miles but it was heavy going in places. Welsh hillsides are often boggy and this one was no exception. It never fails to amaze me just how much water can accumulate on top of a hill when you would expect it to find its way down. Hopping from one tussock to another gets old very quickly and as for the stile in the middle of a stream....

The lower slopes on the steeper side were much better drained with this being one little rivulet that crossed our path.