28 Aug. - Brodgar

 

Image: Ring of Brodgar

Neolith - new stone.
In a land of few trees and abundant slate, you build with stone.

Floor, wall + roof; flat coursed or upright; standing tall or foundational - both grounded in soil; rich earth.
Moist, dark, fertile, bounteous ... Yet barren, from wind + rain.

A hard-won simplicity, filled perhaps with craft + toil, ritual + wonder, fear + joy, life + death.

A chambered cairn millennia old, echoed in the undercroft of a town stair. One to hold the honoured dead with their flint weapons - the other a garden chair + wheelie bin. Progress?

Ring of Brodgar. Proud, still, strong, long-lived.

Notes: The stark beauty and tangible, deep history of Orkney made a lasting impression on the entire family. A truly magnificent land.