James Colman

“This Norman church, which was built in the 12th century, is situated at the centre of a Neolithic ritual henge earthwork.  The unusual pairing of the henge and the church symbolises the transition from pagan to Christian worship.

Not many parish churches stand in ruins, and fewer still occupy sites associated with prehistoric rituals. Four thousand years separate the main late Neolithic earthwork at Knowlton and the Norman church that stands at its centre. The earthwork itself is just one part of a landscape which is one of the great Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England.”

Stanton Drew is the home of the second largest stone circle in England, after Avebury. The Great Circle measures 113m in diameter and consisted of 30 standing stones, 26 of which survive. The collection of stones is fairly unknown, and spread over now privately owned land. The English Heritage website says it best: “This obscurity, and the lack of modern intrusions into their surroundings, have protected their solitude and character”. The Cove is a horseshoe of three stones that reside in the garden of the local pub (called the Druids Arms). The three stone circles are on farmland, but the farmer kindly allows access for £1 - paid via an honesty box. There is a print out of the history of the stones by the box also, and short-stay carpark.

Cuween Hill was cut out of solid bedrock about 5,000 years ago. From Orkneyjar: “Aside from the human bones, perhaps the most interesting discovery [when the cairn was excavated in 1901] was that of 24 dog skulls. This led to the suggestion that the tomb’s users may have had totem animals. One theory has it that dogs may have been used to strip the flesh from the dead before their remains were interred in the tomb.” 

As the Orkneyjar says: “Access to the interior is by a low, narrow, entrance passage, which, being less than one metre high, requires the visitor to get down on their hands and knees and crawl”. Just like Wideford Hill, there is a wooden box including a torch and, on this occasion, candles and matches (for the ultimate authenticity of viewing the inside by fire-light!). But the experience inside is the epitome of the Neolithic tomb experience - pitch black inside, crawling through the original entrance, with only fire to light your way. You can’t get much better.

It was discovered in 1850, and then rediscovered and excavated in the 1920s and 1930s. It was found when a storm blew away the sand that had encased it for thousands of years. By chance, this sand had preserved the houses and contents impeccably. Inside were beds, stone “dressers”, toilets and sunken water-tight bait boxes.

Wideford Hill is about 5,000 years old and built in a similar style to Maeshowe, although not on such a grand scale. It was originally entered like most Neolithic tombs through a narrow passage 17.4 feet long and less than two feet high and wide. But this has been blocked off and now the tomb is entered though a sliding hatch and ladder from the top. This makes the experience of descending into the darkness even more unique, and something I have only experienced in Orkney. There is even a little wooden box with a torch inside for visitors to use!

From the outside you can see the concentric circles that make up the structure (a bit like the tiers of a wedding cake). Originally it would have been covered in earthen dome, but this was removed in modern times to show the masonry underneath.

Originally processions would have began at the settlement, and there is a causeway across the original bank and ditch henge surrounding the stone circle that leads from here. There seems to be some link between the hearth at the centre of Structure 8 and the hearth in the centre of the stones - showing fire, food and celebration were shared between these domestic dwellings and the rituals of the circle.

The Standing Stones of Stenness is the oldest stone circle in the entire world, built sometime between 5,400 and 4,500 years ago. There were once up to 12 stones standing here. One theory of these stones, and those at Brodgar, are that each came from a different part of Orkney - and therefore a different community. These places may have been meeting places, where people came to celebrate, exchange goods, get married and speak to ancestors.

We were lucky enough to visit the Standing Stones during a brief gap with no other tourists - allowing us to get some uninterrupted shots, including a selfie!

The final shot is Maeshowe, which is said to be the finest chambered tomb in north-west Europe. It is around 5,000 years old, and the mound is about 35m across and 7m high. The masonry is amazing, the quality of work is unimaginable for the times - people 5,000 years ago with no machinery or even metal tools were building such grand manmade monuments . The dome-shaped roof was created using a technique called corbelling, and shows the Neolithic peoples understanding of architecture. The cherry on top is its orientation - it was built so that on the mid-winter solstice, the sunset shines down the 10m long entrance passage and fills the chamber with light.