A mammoth undertaking

I had a big birthday last week and was determined to spend it somewhere other than at work. Last year, I was running an equipment trial up at Durham University on the day of my birthday, and ended up buying a small iced cake from a bakery and taking that into the lab to share with the team. This year, I wanted to do something a bit different. I certainly managed that!

I’ve wanted for several years to see the stunning prehistoric remains on Shetland and Orkney. We consider the islands to be somewhat remote and isolated these days, being off the far north-east coast of Scotland and therefore clearly in the back of beyond. But in prehistoric times, a major way of getting around was by boat, and the islands had strong trading links to Norway, Denmark and even Cornwall. However, the subsequent relative isolation, together with the fact that lack of trees on the islands meant that they had to build in stone, means that much early archaeology is stunningly preserved.

There are a number of companies offering guided tours of Shetland and Orkney, led by an archaeologist. But my first couple of choices were non-starters – they either went at the wrong time of the year (and I particularly wanted to be away for the week of my birthday), or they were fully-booked for the desired dates. I ended up going with a company I’d never heard of before, who had availability on the required date, and were significantly cheaper than my first choice. The tour was led by an archaeologist, and went to all the key sights that I wanted to see, so that was all fine. They were clearly cutting costs on transport and accommodation. A brief examination of the itinerary showed where savings were being made. Rather than flying between the islands and the mainland, they made use of the overnight Northlink ferry service between Aberdeen and the Shetland and Orkney islands. So two nights were spent on board a humongous car-ferry, in rather poky but adequately comfortable cabins. I was rather concerned about that, but fortunately the crossings in both directions were very smooth and I managed to get at least some sleep. Fortunately the company didn’t try to get the costs even lower by foregoing cabins altogether – the alternative was to doze fitfully on recliner chairs in the main passenger lounge, as lots of locals seemed to be doing!

Despite the down-market travel options, the holiday was actually pretty good. The archaeologist knew his stuff and was a good communicator. It turned out that he was a late replacement for the advertised chap, who was stuck on an excavation on Iona and couldn’t get away in time to join the group! Our man was contacted on the Thursday, and asked to lead the tour on the following Monday, even though he’d never worked for the holiday company before and certainly hadn’t led a tour round the sites before! I got the strong impression that he’d spent the weekend frantically reading up on his old excavation notes from when he was himself digging them…. But it all worked out fine.

A brief description of the best sites and some photos will follow, once I’ve caught up with the laundry and had a chance to look at the pictures myself.