worked stone

I've returned from my first trip to Orkney. This had been on my wish list of places to visit for many years. I thought December in Orkney would be all horizontal rain and storms but I arrived between storms and it was warm and quiet. Warmer than further south which was pleasantly bemusing.

There is so much I want to draw I am not sure where to begin…

house at Skara Brae looking at the stone dresser 

I started with 3100 BC and spent two hours visiting Skara Brae, Europe's best preserved Neolithic village. Wow. So much remains of these stone structures, it's an environment where people lived and worked and conveys a sense of reality. The entire complex of houses are interconnected, like nests in the dunes, snuggled away from the wind. These were the people who also created the extraordinary shard-like Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.

One of the stones of Stenness. 

Orkney has so many layers of history. Driving through the landscape there were remains from the First and Second World Wars. Here are the ruined sheds by the site of the gun emplacements at Yesnaby.

Finally the hills of Hoy from a beach near Stromness. The winter afternoon light was dissolving into blue night. The longest night is almost upon us and daylight is precious.