The Entire History of Orkney // Vikings Prehistory Documentary

it's getting dark as we approach the island heading out from scrapster on a medium-sized car it's been raining all afternoon some might call it miserable but i wouldn't have it any other way standing out on deck i'm getting a real sense of what it must have been like for ancient marinus making the short but treacherous crossing from the british mainland all those centuries ago i can't help it i'm excited i've been reading about the place for years we're about to enter a primordial land of neolithic burial chambers and viking sea fortresses then we see it cliff tops rising from the gloom orkney it isn't like the rest of britain up here there's just something about it there's a different feel to the place it's more nordic atmospheric there's a good reason for that until the later middle ages this was part of scandinavia that legacy lives on here in dna place names culture and the very landscape itself my name's pete kelly in september 2018 i took a trip to the northernmost point on the british mainland and further to orkney [Music] right now it's early 2021 i can't go anywhere at the moment so come with me if you will on this trip back in time to see stone circles ancient tubes and viking fortresses let's go [Applause] [Music] it's late summer we've been traveling north all day to the very far north of britain [Music] and finally we reached the area known as sutherland it's my first indication this isn't a normal trip we're going upside down crossing into the borders of another cultural sphere emanating from even further to the north and east we're in the borderlands this rugged land is called that for a good reason an information board lets me know for a thousand years ago this was deemed a southerly region of the norse sea empire a cultural sphere of scandinavian influence in this case originating in norway it once stretched from southern ireland in a wide arc all the way into russia and the far east beyond [Music] on our way up here we passed through the ancient land of the picts too and their ancestors the brock build us [Music] known as keith ness today vast tracts of empty land stretch out from the highway loomed over by massive wind turbines i tried to spy any brocks on the horizon but we're simply going too fast we have a destination in mind then finally we reach it the most northerly harbour on the british mainland known as the standing on the edge in old norse scrabster has been a seaport since the 9th century and it's still very much in use today and just like that we say goodbye to the mainland [Music] then again everything is about to change once more we're about to enter another mainland time for another perspective shift you don't go on to orkney you go into it much like we were just in scotland we're now in orkney [Music] strom nest to be precise we leave immediately heading towards our accommodation in kirkwall the largest settlement on the islands [Music] and what to do when you first arrive in orkney well we do what all good vikings do we go to the pub of course this one has the orkneying saga written all over the walls and a great selection of local craft beer and gin i'm going to like this place it's precisely that saga plastered on the walls one of the most famous of all written sometime during the 13th century in iceland which enables us to know so much about the history up here compared to many other places sure it might not be the most accurate record of information but at least it exists stories clutched from the passage of time where so many others have disintegrated into oblivion oh what i'd give for a chronicle of the kings of mercia written just a few hundred years after the event [Music] instead we have nothing 800 years ago these islands were part of a flourishing storytelling tradition dating back to the pre-literate scandinavian societies of bygone days the words of those speakers still reverberate today they hint at a time far before the present a time of monsters and villains but of great heroes too [Music] it took a long time for those legends to die out up here in the north and it's no wonder the very place exudes mystery and awe winters are harsh up here and the warm hearth of a storyteller's fire could at least provide some solace to those huddled around [Music] of course by the time norseman came here in 8th and 9th centuries making the short crossing from norway to escape royal persecution if the sagas are to be believed this was already an ancient land the long abandoned windswept remains of neolithic villages still scatter the shoreline along with ancient stone circles made by elves and fairies if the icelandic traditions are to be believed during the last century it was once assumed that the native inhabitants of the islands had been wiped out by those norse incomers though today archaeology and now dna tells a different story people had already lived up here for thousands of years by the time those norsemen arrived and they would continue to do so [Music] we hit the hay but in the morning we'll see some of the great works of those ancestors and find out why this place is one of the most important stone age landscapes on the planet [Music] heading out west from kirkwall there's only one place to go first if you're here for the ancient history you simply have to go as we get to the car park tyres crunching on the gravel we can already see it [Music] this is the stones of stennis dating to around 3100 bc centuries before the pyramids of egypt [Music] originally some 12 stones stood here surrounded by a massive hedge by itself stennis would have been one of the largest and most impressive stone circles in the world the result of an estimated 12 500 consecutive hours of labour but as we shall see the place isn't [Music] alone over the last century stennis has been extensively examined with a square setting located at the center found to contain a hearth fire [Music] how it all originally appeared is difficult to say it would probably surprise us though huge amounts of effort went into these places and the location for it feels very special [Music] surrounded by hills and water there is a surprising amount of visibility over what must have been a sacred landscape it could be that today mere vestiges remain on this landscape of a much more extensive ceremonial and lived-in environment we have other examples of this that are only gradually being revealed at the other end of britain for example dorchester's ceremonial landscape contained what is now described as a mega henge along with a variety of other massive monuments stonehenge also has a recently discovered mega henge that puts the stone circle at avery largest known in the world to shame what's really fascinating about this place though is that here on the far northern extremity of britain a revolution in thought seems to have taken place some five thousand years ago believe it or not and many archaeologists dispute the idea of course but for a time this windswept archipelago on the north sea bordered by the harsh waves of the atlantic on one side the foreboding cliffs of far off scotland on the other may have been the center of this new unique form of architecture that would sweep through britain [Music] for this may well be one of the earliest stone circles found anywhere but there's more after several hundreds of years of use construction at another site would begin one that dwarfs stennis in scale a gentle stroll today the pathway between stennis and this second stone circle is thought to have once been a processional way at its end stands the ring of brodgar it might just be my favorite stone circle anywhere walking along that pathway i get a real feeling of what it might have felt like for our ancestors to approach this place in a circle measuring 104 meters across around 60 stones may have originally stood here this is the largest on orkney and one of the largest in britain like stennis the surrounding ditch was cut straight into the bedrock a hugely impressive sight during its lifetime and a feat that can still be appreciated today walking towards this place is a haunting experience it comes as no surprise to me that archaeologists have interpreted it as a place for the dead [Music] it seems to stand separate on a slither of land surrounded by water with an estimated eighty thousand man-hours needed to construct it brodgar dwarfs stennis in scale the result of a vibrant culture at the very height of its technological capabilities showing off ceremonies may have taken place at night the heart of the ring of brodgar could have served as an observatory to monitor the passing of the seasons and bring in the harvest for this earliest of farming societies [Music] the ring of brodgar remains especially enigmatic today and though little in-depth archaeology has been carried out at the site the stones are generally considered to have originated on all far-flung corners of the orkneys it's been suggested each stone could have been brought by an individual village community or clan coming together here putting aside their differences to work with each other for a common purpose something greater than themselves that would stand the test of time [Music] and there's much more to this landscape than the still visible stone circles in recent decades a vast monumental walled complex was found here just across the water at the nest of brodgar sea levels have changed since this place was built but the latest research suggests that practically the entire peninsula was once taken up by monumental structures remains of other stone circles can be found too where today only individual monoliths remain [Music] like the comet stone by bradgar the watch stone by the stones of stennis and barnhouse stone nearby what a sight this must have been to behold [Music] no other henge sites have been found on the islands but yet more ancient monuments remarkable in themselves can be found nearby surely part of this same landscape [Music] just a short walk away jutting out of a farmer's field with sheep standing guard this is maize however it doesn't look like much from the outside reminding me of burial mounds i've seen all over britain and beyond but it's what's inside that is truly incredible around 800 years ago so says the orkneyinga saga vicious storms racked the islands making their way carefully across the wind slashed plains a band of warriors returning from crusade in the holy land spy this mound in the distance disregarding any thoughts of disturbing the ancestors and at real risk of succumbing to exposure they forced their way inside the visit perhaps still being seen in runic graffiti that covers the walls the most significant found anywhere they saw a phenomenally complex structure built at least 3 000 years before the age of the vikings [Music] by the time those warriors broke into the place it had already been looted by earlier norsemen and little remained inside when modern archaeologists first arrived at the place the structure itself tells us a lot about what was going on though this is an exceptionally complex building [Music] there wasn't much wood to use up here for building but these stone age people made up for it [Music] with a long passageway leading on into a central chamber are similarities here to the vast site of newgrange in ireland and tombs in northern wales like bryn kethly d on anglesey the nearby barnhouse stone in a field 700 meters away is perfectly aligned to the entrance allowing the direct light of the setting sun into the chamber for just a few days each side of the winter solstice lighting the back wall up this mathematical configuration is just one tiny insight into the ceremonies that would have been carried out here [Music] though similar to other lands across the sea maize howe type tombs consisting of a long passage are found exclusively on orkney [Music] a later more sophisticated development from older tomb types found on the islands some archaeologists even think that maize howe might have originally been surrounded by another large stone circle of which the barnhouse stone remains as the only survivor [Music] low roads connect neolithic ceremonial sites throughout britain and orkney is no exception a still-visible ancient pathway linking up maise howe to stennis the ring of brodgar and on to the magnificently preserved village of scarabray a concentration of neolithic sites rivalled only by the ceremonial complexes of stonehenge aufbury and the boyne valley but of course this landscape is just the most famous and impressive of many found all over the islands [Music] much further south is another fantastic place to visit a far smaller more intimate setting perhaps representative of how slightly more regular everyday people lived their lives i'd never heard of this place but on following the advice of the guy at the mays howe visitors center we decided to visit so weighed down by books we head south [Music] when local farmer ronald simmerson went out looking for building stone in 1958 he found something completely unexpected standing on a windswept cliff's edge on south ronaldsey the southernmost of orkney's islands staring out over the waves for five thousand years this is isbister known more famously as the tomb of the eagles today the place has a very special intimate feel just as it must have done all those millennia ago when it was a center of worship and ritual life for the people of this island i stand and i look out to sea trying to think of what it must have been like for these people all those centuries ago during the excavations that followed evidence was found that the tomb had originally contained large quantities of human bones some of which today are displayed in the local visitors center usually at places like mays howe tombs were opened and explored long ago leaving little left for modern archaeologists [Music] it's a rarity to find an untouched tomb like that at ibsta though interestingly only the bones from certain individuals were found here nowhere near enough to be the whole community apparently only people who were important enough were interred within interestingly many disabled people were found here apparently related to each other through a genetic line as ridiculously powerful winds bear down on us standing here between open plains and the rough sea make no mistake this was a very hard short life the bones show signs of disease injury and early death unlike the earlier tombs found on the islands isbister is a hybrid type moving towards the magnificent architecture at mais howe but not quite there yet these tombs were meant to be entered to inter individuals and perhaps to commune with the dead too though mostly faded away now artwork can sometimes be found on walls too i get the idea like religious buildings today this was a temple as much as a grave but this wasn't where people spent most of their time up on the high cliffs this was a place apart settlements were probably spread out far and wide around along with individual plots of land of course the most famous part of this tomb is where it gets its name amongst the piles of human bones animal remains were found too [Music] mostly of a specific type sea eagles lots of them this coupled with the at least 36 red deer found at a tomb at yasso and 24 dog skulls found at cohen hill cairn has led experts to suggest totemic animals being adopted by various groups it's a captivating idea surely this would have been a great place for the clan of the sea eagle sounds like something straight out of historical fiction but just maybe it might have happened out of everything i saw on orkney the tomb of the eagles was possibly the highlight due to its complete unexpectedness again i leave weighed down by more books but there's plenty more to see yet and we haven't even got to the bronze age today archaeologists flock to orkney to the incredible variety of sights in the mainland but in the other islands too nearby rousseau for example being dubbed the egypt of the north due to the sheer amount of archaeological sites here but there was a time when this wasn't entirely the case in 1927 one of the earliest archaeologists to come here to do serious work would ultimately become one of the giants of 20th century prehistory an australian the gordon child [Music] his destination a now world famous ancient village uncovered by a storm in the 1800s originally thought to be pictish in origin due to its immaculate preservation [Music] it wasn't until 1931 the child realized the village not to be pictish but so much older dating to somewhere between 3200 and 2500 bc unfortunately we only have time to drive past scarabray for some reason at the time i'm more interested in monuments and fortresses another place i'll have to go back to far from an exceptional settlement scarra bray is amazing in its normality surviving only because of the lack of timber building materials up here in the north rather than any other reason linked up sunken houses to protect from the elements containing dressing tables even all made from local sandstone the same used for the nearby stones of stennis and still used to make houses today just as it begins to get dark we approach another monument this one separated in time from brodgar and stennis by thousands of years this is the brock of guerness one of those iron age structures we drove past on the way to orkney mostly dating to the second half of the first millennium bc three rings of formidable stone ramparts and ditches surround a central settlement complex and tower [Music] originally as much as 10 meters tall the planned settlement here includes latrines and a drainage system during this time when brock building dominated the orkneys this largest of brock's was clearly one of the most important settlements on the islands probably a royal center [Music] interestingly it's not just british artifacts that are found here but a scattering of roman items too pottery perhaps used to carry olives or sweet wines to the islands and a ring with a legionary eagle on it writing much later the roman writer eutropius wrote that the arcadian king was amongst those who submitted to the emperor claudius in 43 a.d upon invading the island and later still tacitus claimed that the general agricola briefly visited and conquered the islands during his circumnavigation of britain in 80 a.d yet for the most part unlike southern scotland roman rule never made it this far and the extent of roman involvement here remains unclear by this time though like the rest of scotland brock building seems to have ground to a halt life continued at gunness until the 5th century a.d though by this time the brock itself had fallen into ruins ultimately being built over the culture had changed yet again and settlement patterns with it this was the age of the picts and we will see one of their settlements [Music] next every now and again up here in the north it gets extremely windy as we drive over massive dikes built during the second world war we head past scapa flow the home base of the british navy during that conflict and i feel like the car is about to take off visit an old chapel made by italian prisoners of war a long way from home for those men but at least they had a sense of purpose during those dark times finally after a hearty lunch and good local beer we find ourselves on the very north of the island we spot seals lounging around by the shore they're all over the beach unfortunately i only have an old dslr with one lens at this point so no close-up shots then without even really intending it we stumble upon a mighty sea fortress of old [Music] this was the sort of place the descendants of those brock builders moved their power centers to in the centuries following the coming of the romans a citadel of pictish kings and it is to that murky early medieval age of saints and warlords of myths and heroes that we now must turn in the year 565 so says the irish chronicler adam nan the grizzled missionary and church leader columba made his way to the court of the pictish high king near inverness asking king brady to ensure the safety of the christian hermits now making inroads on the windswept isles of the far north but bride wasn't alone along with the various kings of pictland stood the ruler of the orkneys [Music] apparently subservient to the high king but overlord of his own realm too and the one in question now visited by hermits and holy men evidence somewhat backed up by archaeology by the time another pictish king named briday triumphant in battle against the anglians of northumbria at the battle of dunn nectan went north to invade orkney in 681 more or less all of the picts were now christian their culture was still unique though seen on carvings found all over scotland the bruff of bersay is no exception a fine carved slab depicting three bearded warriors armed with spears and shields having been found here along with other more enigmatic pictish symbols fine jewellery buildings and extensive evidence of metal working this was a royal or at least elite center complete with a chapel and numerous houses the buildings we see today however were built later by another culture [Music] by the 9th century times were changing on orkney at guerness a norse woman was buried her grave goods could be seen at nearby orkney museum in kirkwall alongside many artifacts from the bronze age iron age and the age of the picts [Music] at mate howe evidence suggests similar burials were made too newcomers staking a claim to the landscape for this was the age of the vikings though much of the original settlement may have fallen into the sea over the last 1 000 years the broth of bersay has seen much excavation in recent years long houses and mead halls have been revealed as well as romanesque church buildings nearby coves for beaching longships as well as christian artifacts this was a place between two worlds the new europe of paperly sanctioned crusades and landed aristocrats as much as the germanic world of old relayed so poetically in the orkney in gasaga the story of the earls of orkney and it was here at bersay that at least one of those earls contemporary of william the conqueror made his base we know him as thorphin the mighty his father sigurd had been one of the most powerful rulers of orkney yet born of a norse marauder and an irish princess in the year 1014 along with a coalition of vikings from all corners of the irish sea and beyond he'd led a great host of warriors into battle at clontarf to wage war against the high king of ireland brian barrow still bearing the raven banner of odin as he marched to his doom at least publicly sigurd had been a christian in the saga tradition forced to convert at around the turn of the millennium by the formidable king of norway olaf trigvarsen though like most converts perhaps even olaf himself in private sigurd may well have carried on his old faith the next generation would be different however sigurd had many sons who of course ward amongst themselves after his death eventually the victor of the struggle was one named thor finn born of a scottish mother thorphin had been raised at the court of his grandfather in scotland and when he came here to orkney he began christianizing the islands in earnest [Music] but like monarchs all over europe the new faith didn't stop him from waging war far from it a formidable warlord during his day during a lengthy and fascinating career thorfin regularly ravaged his way across the scottish mainland raiding england in 1042 and dealing with all the major kings of the era [Music] even going on pilgrimage to rome after which according to the sagas he built a church here at bersay the contemporary of macbeth king knut and edward the confessor thorfin the mighty was practically a king in his own right before dying in around 1065 right at the traditional end of the viking age had history gone slightly differently orkney may well have remained scandinavian to this day [Music] that's it for the history on this trip we go to a gin tasting and on the last day i reached 50 000 subscribers on my main channel history time i leave orkney determined to return particularly now i have my drone to use thanks for watching my name's pete kelly don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed the video let me know what you think in the comments and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Pete Kelly

Views: 450,980

Keywords: history, travel, visiting history, ancient monuments, stone circles, visiting ancient history, ancient Britain, in search of ancient Britain, history time, archaeology, mythology

Id: sL86dy5Z--M

Length: 45min 32sec (2732 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021