Bressay July 18th 1865 "The Orcadian" George Petrie and Dr Hunt excavate 65'D 10~11' high bowl barrow. Near the centre 5-6' below the apex were fond a "peculiar" stone tool (similar to one found ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_11_01_archive.html#5379036068946682360
Having gone back to Orkney's 19thC newspapers to extract accounts of non-Orcadian sites (e.g Shetlsnd and Caithness) I found more Orcadian ones too. So here are more summaries Birsay October 27th...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html#569422173123374683
Though the Orkney Blide Trust's Out and About had once been due to visit the RSPB's biird reserve in Rendall this han't come about. Then I received an e-mail from the RSPB for volunteers, saying ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html#1015774471423000737
Took the bus to the start of the first Churchill Barrier. The driver was good enough to set me down quite close. As this counted as a Lamb Holm return I thought about crossing over the barrier. N...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html#6524148999776807605
Another happy accident leads to this article. What is presently the "One Stop Shop" in School Place (I have heard from someone that the former East Church's name has changed again) started off li...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html#1446152542114359534
Only three for the Out and About today; the volunteer driver Patrick, me and the labradoodle Star. In St. Margaret's Hope we parked the minibus at Cromarty Square, went onto Shore Road and took t...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html#9102128212928938182
Found the Loons well again yesterday beside the Oglaby road, it is nearer to the Loon's south corner than remembered (is on 1:25,000) and below eye level not above ! Then went past the Hellihole ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html#5653143472836241586
Went back to the original newspaper article, and finding out who found the cists could establish the whereabouts more precisely. In the 1850s John Delday brought some Deerness land into cultivati...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html#7462419067998490077
Took the bus to Lighthouse Corner. Had tons of time so went down to have a look at Skaill. The church has only been called St Ninian's since a steamship of that name ran aground in 1903. Going be...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html#866571074281271427
"Anderson's Guide to Orkney" of 1884 refers to excavations on Milldam Farm in Deerness in the summer of 1861, and the "Orkney Herald" of June 11th 1861 gives more detail for these. Though the new...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html#8902828265105773648
Whilst waiting for the ferry to leave I raised my head to take far shots of the Houton Head Battery and of the more easily distinguished engine room, both on the skyline above Howth. Like matchst...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_12_01_archive.html#1085461875169179271
The tall crenellated cylindrical structure to the left as you come into Shapinsay is called the Dishan Tower from its use in the 19thC as a primitive shower called a douche-house, hence its other...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_10_01_archive.html#283713229502726888
Coming to St Margaret's Hope (from Kirkwall) instead of turning down into the main body of the place go a little further and by the war memorial, barely outside The Hope turn left at the junction...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html#705176244742491837
Another grand day in paradise as the Blide group of Out and About folk headed down to South Ronaldsay in a full minibus again, picking up a member in the south isles. The road to Hoxa we used sta...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html#6181552048719821801
Took the track down to the start of Binscarth. From outside the wood shining fair with only a few shadowed limbs to make shapes within the mass effect. Though it stayed daybright inside I simply ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html#1614467512208371946
To save a little time, and perform last August's journey with several reversals, I took the bus to the Harray Road junction. Today's walk I undertook in order to confirm my memory of a couple of ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html#3760412840621131666
Alighted at Finstown and headed off down to Binscarth Wood, a plantation like every Orcadian wood except Berriedale on Hoy. You cross into the trees where the millstream exits the wood (having st...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html#4862195365561683700
The above is the name of this advertised trail, though the section walked only just comes into Swartland itself (and in the end our little party stopped just short at the Burn of Clett, not finis...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html#9067672497213413991
A FERTILE PLAIN Colin Richard has finished a three week dig in Orkney on an Early Neolithic house on the lands of Smerquoy across from where the Old Finstown Road bottoms out at the base of Widef...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html#6551896603174537180
Another trip with Orkney Blide Trust, this time to Hoy. There are two routes to Hoy. The one that calls in at Graemsay and Flotta starts off at Stromness and ends at Moaness Pier in the north-eas...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html#4662943678629263603
Although I once lived at Smoogro House I never walked the rest of the road, down to the Ve Ness side of the Bay of Swanbister. It is surprising how little you can be curious about the area where ...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html#92524528155308662
EVIE Set off from Orkney Blide Trust on the minibus on a lovely bright day. Arrived at Tingwall, that is thing-völlr 'thing-field'. The long mound has two peaks, the first the top of the broch t...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html#2536409785095220146
In the mid nineteenth century Britain still thought a French invasion possible, and in 1862 the Stromness Artillery Volunteers were formed. Some time between the 1880 25" and 1903 6" maps they bu...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html#630335441620629662
Getting off the bus at Norseman Village I thought I would have a look along the coast to the east in case I could see the Knowe of Dishero. Unsurprisingly I couldn't, but what I did see much clos...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html#3811314075880454309
Now that they have the go-ahead for the new Stromness pier I thought it time to re-visit the (at latest) Early Iron Age remains of Quoyelsh in case the approach to the point became blocked by thi...
http://hypnodons.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html#4272312364713320005