My Home in Eday Part 2

Saturday 2 August 2014

2:15 PM

The isle of Eday, Scotland, UK

The post office is open, but the cash point won't take my card. I lack a chip... damn American debit cards... However, the nice ladies in the shop are able to get me sorted with some cash back, and so all is well.

There is a sign for the Eday heritage walk right by the shop, and as it would turn out, that walk contains the remainder of Eday's cairns. There is a short ride down a B road before there is a sign and one of those weird gate things.The thing with these gates is that only one person at a time can fit through it (and a skinny person at that). Bikes are a no go, and so I'm forced to leave Ethel behind.

This is apparently called a kissing gate. I didn't take this photo, nor do I know the elderly gentleman using this one. Either way, I'm sure you can see how such a gate would pose a problem for a bike.

It's a very short walk to the Stone of Setter, which happens to be the tallest monolith in Orkney (for the record, a monolith is a single standing stone, hence the prefix "mono").

This is the Stone of Setter, which is apparently 4.5m tall (although it is believed that it used to be even taller). 

I continue on to Braeside, a stalled chambered cairn in rough shape. It has clearly been excavated and the entrance is really easy for me to make out. The cool thing is that the entrance pretty clearly lines up with the Stone of Setter. This is an older cairn, so that probably dates the stone as well. Unfortunately, this isn't the most photogenic of cairns. So I'll spare you the photos.
Only a few hundred metres away is Huntersquoy Cairn. I have to say, I wish all my days here in Orkney were this easy. All my targets are within sight of one another. When I see it, I start to get excited. It looks like it's completely in-tact. As it so happens, it is. But... it's also completely flooded.

I love my job, but you couldn't pay me enough to go for a swim in a flooded subterranean Neolithic tomb. 

There is one more cairn on my walk, and to get there I have to make my way up the steep Vinquoy Hill. There are sheep everywhere, but the ground is covered in grass not heather. The climb is certainly worth it. I mean even if the cairn was a dud, the climb would have been worth it.

This is a panoramic view from the top of Vinquoy Hill which incidentally is on top of the cairn as well. It starts facing the Holm of Faray and the southern tip of the Isle of Westray, but you get to see a good deal of Eday as well as the Calf of Eday in this shot.

Lucky for me, this cairn isn't a dud. In fact, this cairn is the best/coolest cairn I've visited since coming to Orkney. This is because it's not in ruins. There is a long, low, gently curving entrance which opens up to a tall but cosy chamber. There are four smaller chambers which split out from the main one. each of their entrances are as low and narrow as the passageway into the main chamber. However, once inside these chambers are tall enough for me to stand in. Although, they leave me with an intense feeling of claustrophobia.

The entrance to the cairn as seen from the back wall.

The original roof had been replaced with a cement block fitted with a skylight. This illuminates the central chamber, and I have to say I enjoy the foliage which is growing along the top. It really adds to the feel of the place.

I think, if I lived on Eday, I would come here often. It's a good place to think.