The Tomb of the Eagles

by Richard Denning

I was lucky enough to spend some of the summer of 2016 in the Highlands of Scotland and in the Orkney Islands. This was my first visit to the islands.

The Orkneys was home to the Royal Navy which , operating out of its wartime base of Scapa Flow emerged to fight the Battle of Jutland in WW1 and hunt down the Bismarck in WW2 and many other battles. The place is littered with memories of those days: echoes of the days when the British fleet ruled the waves.

But long before the British fleet came to the islands the Orkneys were already ancient with some of the earliest prehistoric sites predating the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Later the Picts built their Brochs here and later still the Vikings sailed forth from is harbours.

This is a land and waterways with a deep history and many mysteries. One of the sites I visited was the Tomb of the Eagles.

At the far south tip of South Ronaldsay is a windswept coastline of cliffs and grasslands dotted with farms. On one of this in 1958, farmer Ronald Simison was digging flagstones and came across the barrow - half buried under the grass. He initially conducted his own excavations but later the archaeologist John Hedges mounted a full study and named the place the tomb of the Eagles.

The tomb was dated to 3000BC. 16,000 human bones were found but also hundreds from the white-tailed sea eagle - hence the name. The eagles died c. 2450–2050 BC, up to 1,000 years after the building of the tomb.

The opening to the tomb is a low tunnel. To gain entry you must lie down on a skateboard like device and haul yourself in.

Once inside the roof is quite high so you can stand up.

There is one main chamber and a number of side chambers.

In one side chamber are skulls - but there are not original inhabitants.

They have been placed to give an ideas of what the place looked like, full of bones. Maybe the bodies were left out to decay or for the eagles to feast off and then the bare bones taken into the tomb.

Bronze Age Structure

It was a windy day when we visited as you can see from my attire!

The site has a second, later Bronze age structure which was also found by the same man. It seems to have been a stone hut. It contains a central water tank whose function is unknown, surrounded by low stone benches/ seating. A quite inventive plumbing arrangement brings water into a reservoir pool near the main tank. From there it is thought water was collected and poured into the main tank. There is a drain to take away the waste. Could this have been an ancient sauna or bath? Maybe it was a brewery or perhaps a laundry? No one knows.

I hope to bring you more of the Orkneys in other posts.

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Richard Denning is a historical fiction author whose main period of interest is the Early Anglo-Saxon Era. His Northern Crown series explores the late 6th and early 7th centuries through the eyes of a young Saxon lord.

Explore the darkest years of the dark ages with Cerdic.

www.richarddenning.co.uk

Tomb of the Eagles, Orkney Islands, Scotland

by Christy Jackson Nicholas

Eagle Point

We were just starting the second week of our three week journey through the Highlands and the Islands of Scotland. As we had traveled farther north, the weather got cooler, of course, despite it being near Summer Solstice. To compensate, we had very long days, and in the Orkney Islands, we only had a few hours of twilight each night to mark the setting sun. This allowed us to visit many places, despite the cool weather and strong winds.

We headed out to one far end of the main island, to a place known as the Tomb of the Eagles. This was a place that, if it wasn’t the end of the world, it must be close. It felt isolated, desolate, in spite of the lush green grasses that grew all around. There is a small museum for the tomb at the home of the farmer who discovered it, explaining the cairn, its discovery, and the items found in the tomb. It was built over five thousand, one hundred years ago, and just recently unearthed, mostly due to the fact the rocks were straight, while all the natural rock around was at a sharp angle.

We walked out along the coastal path to the tomb, about a half mile walk. Out into the ocean we could see forever, the rare sunlight glinting on the sea like a blanket of stars. The tall grasses on either side of the path swayed in the strong wind, and occasional needles of rain made their way into our jackets as we marshaled on.

As we rounded the coast and found the chambered tomb, we realized we would have to pull ourselves in on a low cart, on our back, using the rope affixed to the roof of the entrance. It was, so they said, tall enough to stand inside when we got in, but it was a very small entranceway. We took the plunge and entered, finding three chambers. There had been sixteen thousand human bones at the site, and over seven hundred from sea eagles – thus the name of the tomb. Perhaps it was a totem animal, but these eagles had died out about a thousand years after the tomb was built.

Orkney Eagle Tomb

This tomb is one of the oldest buildings in the United Kingdom, along with Skara Brae and Maes Howe on the same island. The state of preservation of these buildings lent much to the fact they had been buried for so long, undisturbed over the centuries, waiting for time, luck, and perhaps a bit of divine guidance, to reveal them to the descendants of their builders.

This information and more is available in my newly published ebook called Stunning, Strange and Secret, a Guide to Hidden Scotland. It contains some myth and history, tips and tricks to planning your own trip, and lots of hidden gems and photographs. It is available in several formats at http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Nicholas_Christy/scotland-guide.htm
Please visit my author page on Facebook.

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Christy Nicholas, also known as Green Dragon, has her hands in many crafts, including digital art, beaded jewelry, writing, and photography. In real life, she's a CPA, but having grown up with art all around her (her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are/were all artists), it sort of infected her, as it were. She loves to draw and to create things. She says it's more of an obsession than a hobby. She likes looking up into the sky and seeing a beautiful sunset, or seeing a fragrant blossom or a dramatic seaside. She takes a picture or creates a piece of jewelry as her way of sharing this serenity, this joy, this beauty with others. Sometimes this sharing requires explanation – and thus she writes. Combine this love of beauty with a bit of financial sense and you get an art business. She does local art and craft shows, as well as sending her art to various science fiction conventions throughout the country and abroad.