Orkney Riddler

  A Brief Guide to the Last Glaciation of Britain This is a brief account of the last glaciation period which was responsible for the creation of much of our landscape.  Some of it is, no doubt, completely wrong and there are things I would , and will, change.  The general drift of the sequence of events that i have generated here has been gathered in close scrutiny of BGS North Sea Memoirs,  and some other sources.  The ice age then, started 120,000 years ago and before it began the temperature of the planet was very high, and remained so for 20,000 years.  Sea levels were high, so the chart below is a guess for the outline of the coast of Britain at the start of the ice age. At 120,000 years ago snow began to fall, and continued to fall until around 70,000 years ago. It was thickest on high ground,  and at high altitudes. The places that it accumulated most deeply were Britain, Norway,  and the Alps of southern Europe.  After 70,000 years a...

  The Ferriby Boats  From "New AMS radiocarbon dates for the North Ferriby boats - A contribution to dating prehistoric seafaring in northwestern Europe" by Alex Bayliss et al "Introduction The Ferriby boats (F1, F2 and F3) were discovered on the Humber foreshore between 1937 and 1963 (Wright &Wright 1939; Wright 1990; FIGURES1&2). All three boats have been dated to the Bronze Age and are similar in design: planks are stitched together with yew withies, and systems of cleats with transverse timbers provide structural integrity to the hull, which was perhaps amplified by inserted frames.  These craft, with other related British finds, constitute an unparalleled series that provides insight into the mechanisms of prehistoric transport.  Previously, it was generally assumed that these boats were used predominantly for inland water transport, but a more recent assessment argued that the craft were used for long-distance exchange, including seafaring (Van de Noort...

  The Bizarre Idea This is a view of the Pentland Firth from a settlement called Skarfskerry, on the North Coast of Caithness in Scotland. The low headland across the water is a neighbouring piece of Scottish coast and beyond that, at the horizon left of view, and almost invisible, is Orkney, an archipelago that sits beyond the northernmost coast of the Scotland. It is part of the Northern Isles group, and consists of more than 70, mostly low-lying, islands and islets of which only about 20 are inhabited. Orkney is renowned as the home of a Unesco World Heritage site. The islands were occupied over 5000 years ago by Neolithic people who created a group of settlements and monuments of a complexity and quality not surviving anywhere else in Britain at such an early date. The Pentland Firth here that separates Scotland from Orkney is a strait of water about 8 miles wide, and is famously dangerous. The average speed of water running through the Firth can reach 4 nautical miles per...

  Limited list of Sources :- I have used the evidence published in the sources I have quoted. The interpretation that I draw from their evidence is entirely my own, and I apologise to any authors whose work has been reinterpreted in this way.  Most of the other sources are mentionedin the text. (Bayliss) Alex Bayliss, Peter Marshall, Colin Richards & Alasdair Whittle. Settlement duration and materiality: formal chronological models for the development of Barnhouse, a Grooved Ware settlement in Orkney (BGS) British Geological Survey, North Sea Memoirs (Callander) A Stalled Chambered Cairn , the Knowe of Ramsay, at Hullion, Rousay, Orkney “. By J. Graham Callander, and Walter G. Grant (Callander) “A long, stalled cairn , the Knowe of Yarso, In Rousay, Orkney “ by J. Graham Callander,, and Walter G. Grant, (Callander) Long Stalled Chambered Cairn or Mausoleum (Rousay TYPE) near Midhowe, Rousay, Orkney . By J. Graham Callander, , and Walter G. Grant” (Callander) Long Stalled ...