Orkney

Just a short step from John O'Groats, the Orkney Islands are a unique and fiercely independent archipelago. In spring and summer, the meadows and cliff tops are a brilliant green, shining with wild flowers, while long days pour light onto the land and sea. In autumn and winter, the islands are often battered by gale-force winds and daylight is scarce, but the temperature stays remarkably mild thanks to the ameliorating effect of the Gulf Stream. For an Orcadian, the "Mainland" invariably means the largest island in Orkney rather than the rest of Scotland, and throughout their history they've been linked to lands much further afield, principally Scandinavia.

Small communities began to settle in the islands around 4000 BC, and the village at Skara Brae on the Mainland is one of the best-preserved Stone Age settlements in Europe. This and many of the other older archeological sites, including the Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe, are concentrated in the central and western parts of the Mainland. Elsewhere the islands are scattered with chambered tombs and stone circles, a tribute to the well-developed religious and ceremonial practices taking place here from around 2000 BC. More sophisticated Iron Age inhabitants built fortified villages incorporating stone towers known as brochs, protected by walls and ramparts, many of which are still in place. Later, Pictish culture spread to Orkney and the remains of several of their early Christian settlements can still be seen, the best at the Brough of Birsay in the West Mainland, where a group of small houses is clustered around the remains of an early church. In the ninth century or thereabouts, Norse settlers from Scandinavia arrived and the islands became Norse earldoms, forming an outpost of a powerful, expansive culture which was gradually forcing its way south. The last of the Norse earls was killed in 1231, but they had a lasting impact on the islands, leaving behind not only their language but also the great St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, one of Scotland's outstanding examples of medieval architecture.

After the end of Norse rule, the islands became the preserve of Scottish earls, who exploited and abused the islanders, although a steady increase in sea trade did offer some chance of escape. French and Spanish ships sheltered here in the sixteenth century, and the ships of the Hudson Bay Company recruited hundreds of Orcadians to work in the Canadian fur trade. The islands were also an important staging post in the whaling industry and the herring boom, which drew great numbers of small Dutch, French and Scottish boats. More recently, the choice of Scapa Flow, Orkney's natural harbour, as the Royal Navy's main base brought plenty of money and activity during both world wars, and left the cliff tops dotted with gun emplacements and the seabed scattered with wrecks - which these days make for wonderful diving opportunities. Since the war, things have quietened down somewhat, although since the mid-1970s the large oil terminal on the island of Flotta, combined with EU development grants, have brought surprise windfalls, stemming the exodus of young people. Meanwhile, many disenchanted southerners have become "ferryloupers" (incomers), moving to Orkney in search of peace and the apparent simplicity of island life.

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