Wideford--a leaning wind

Weather in Scotland over Easter is rarely boring.  It keeps you guessing.  Sometimes minute by minute.  

Wideford Hill silver lining--view toward Scapa April 11, 2022

Having now been to Scotland four Easters, we have come to expect that during the first couple days in country we will experience bracing winds  bearing sporadic squalls of sleet.  But just as invariable, after near gales in the first few days of our trip, we are blessed with positively glorious Spring weather the remainder of our tour.  Mostly. This was again true in 2022. 

"The diversion" (forced on us by a construction closure of the Kirkwall to Stomness road at Finstown) led us to Wideford Hill cairn.  We had not intended to walk Wideford Hill for another day or two.  Our preference is to orient the landscape first, before setting off on an over country hike.  But "the diversion" more or less pushed us onward.  

As it turned out, the delayed Inverness to Kirkwall flight, plus the road construction detour, moved the Neolithic marvel on Wideford Hill into the lead off spot in our 2022 lineup.  By moving Wideford up on the schedule, it changed how we would visit the more famous "Heart of Neolithic Orkney"--the Stones of Stenness, Barnhouse, Brodgar Stone Circle and Skara Brae. 

Wideford Hill viewed from Cuween Cairn--April 11, 2022

Thankfully, "the diversion" also prompted us to take in Wideford's neighboring cairn on Cuween Hill.  We had initially short-changed Cuween, penciling it as a "maybe see".  But these two Neolithic features, with their chamber passageways directly facing each other from the opposite highlands that rim the Burn of Rossmyre dale, are something like "bookends".  Now having seen them in situ, my recommendation is visit both if at all possible.    

Leaning winds on Wideford  April 11, 2022

On Wideford Hill, an intrepid spirit was certainly  necessary upon stepping out of the car hire in the small  parking area (room for two vehicles) cut into the trail head.  

Intrepid...and a solid grip on the car door, lest the wind modify your car hire into a doorless Baja rig.  Yes, the wind was that strong. 

The massive North Atlantic wind fetch is something to experience.  Half the planet's atmosphere under motion.  Its momentum is extraordinary.  Nothing disrupts it for 2,100 miles between St. John's in Newfoundland and Orkney in Scotland.  We've got wind here in Idaho, but not like this. Its power is magnified on heights...like Wideford.  

The Wideford walk itself was maybe 3/4 mile one way.  It is considered a medium difficult trail.  In all honesty, it was an easy enough rough country hike, though muddy in many places.  We began the Wideford Hill hike about noon, which is to say just about as soon as we landed on Mainland Orkney and picked up the car hire and got "the diversion" straightened out.  The trail flanks the hill across heath land which proved muddy and slippery at times.  Trail work on some of the steeper and wetter places has armored it with stones.  These varied in effectiveness, though. 

Armored trail section on Wideford Hill  April 11, 2022

For our part, experience dictates that we also don gaiters for our rough walks in Scotland.  Plus, we keep our Keen's well oiled.  Wearing gaiters is not due to a middle class aversion to getting dirty.  We get plenty dusted up here on The W in Idaho.  It's just that we travel very light (by most modern travel standards).  We each operate out of our own small carry on that stows under the aircraft seat.  

We take two pairs of jeans--those that are on us, and one in the pack.  Gaiters keep us presentable in the pub afterwards...and extend the wear.  Now we do set aside time for laundry during our sojourn.  It is catch as catch can--roughly, we dedicate a morning about in the middle of our visit for that.  The key is finding a laundromat.  [Kirkwall, incidentally, has a nice token operated laundromat conveniently located on Albert Street.  We  recommend it.]   

Bundled on Wideford Hill Cairn revetment--April 11, 2022

According to the dashboard, when we got out on Wideford Hill the temperature was 42°F.  It sure didn't feel like it.  On heights, winds lift, creating adiabatic cooling.  Cold mist pushed against us with what the Beaufort wind force scales call a "fresh breeze".  It's fresh alright...with "near gale" gusts.  Skin exposed was spanked. 

During our Easter travels in Scotland, we are never without a wind and water resistant parka.  It is essential.  Those without one (for example visitors just out of the cruise ship cabins who sport Dockers or Old Navy) have no business on Scotland's island heights.  Not even for short hikes.  The weather can and will turn quickly. 

Not for nothing, Scots have a neck scarf weaving industry...it's not for tartans per se.  It's survival most like.  We also punch a pair of lightweight thermo-fleece gloves into the parka pockets for use as needed...at places like Wideford Hill.   

Entrance passageway at Wideford Hill Cairn April 11, 2022

There was a drawback to bundling against the weather.  It proved to be problematic when trying to fit into the Wideford cairn.  Indeed, this would be an issue with several of the passageway cairns we visited in Orkney. 

Cairn passageway openings or entrances often are a mere 20 x 20 inches.  The one at Wideford was 21 x 15 inches; so even smaller.  The passageway itself is about 12 feet in length.  

At some point in the past few decades, this passageway was considered too low for modern entry.  Meaning people are bigger these days.  And an alternative entrance was built.

Attempting to wedge into these entrance holes mimics a circus contortionist twisting an ancient body frame that ain't seen calisthenics in decades.  We will blame the tight fits entirely on extra bundled outer wear.  Uhem.  Yeah...we'll go with that.

Sliding hatch door at Wideford Cairn--April 11, 2022

At Wideford Hill, the passageway into the cairn was blocked by a steel grate.  Theoretically, an improved entry was made.  I guess it is better than belly crawling. To access the "tomb" now, one uses a sliding hatch door built on the roof of the main chamber, and a fixed steel ladder down into the dark.  

Entering from the roof was how "antiquarian" George Petrie (in October 1849) breached the cairn in its first "excavation".  Wideford Hill cairn had a sort of "chimney" opening that was added sometime during the Bronze Age with only a layer of sod over it.  Whether it may have been for light in the chamber is unknown.      

Going in Wideford Hill Cairn--April 11,2022

But even this "modern" slider hatch made for a tight fit...this definitely being a drawback attributed to bundling against the weather.  It was a struggle to fit into Wideford cairn and to move around in it easily.  

The heavy steel ladder was a one-off welded piece, created for and fixed into that specific space.

Ladder into Wideford Hill cairn--April 11, 2022

Prior to descending into Wideford Cairn, I had seen pictures of the ladder.  It looked like it afforded plenty of room in the chamber.  In truth, it didn't.  The ladder, slightly angled, practically occupied the whole of the main chamber, which was only 10 feet long and about 4.5 feet wide.  That was the key restriction.   

Stepping down the ladder practically wedged me between the ladder and the cairn rock wall at my back.  A tight squeeze, when dressed for cold winds.

Wideford cairn was built by quarrying into the hillside.   Its drystone walls are set on an artificial terrace of bedrock, known as the Rousay Flag formation in the middle Old Red Sandstone.  

Apparently, its floor originally was packed clay, but after a couple centuries of visitors the floor is now graveled.  The photo of the ladder shows a small passageway opening off the main chamber, and the now graveled floor with standing muddy water. 

Trying to bend down and view into the chambers was difficult, particularly with a camera bag over the shoulder and the steel ladder either grabbing at it, or just plain poking me in the head.  

Eventually needing to climb out and into the winds above, I was hesitant to get too much wet down there.  It would have been not only wet knees, gloves and elbows, but a muddy bellied parka and camera bag as well. 

Wideford Hill Cairn is one of only a few chambered cairns in Orkney that the Neolithic stone work can be seen above ground.  Wideford has also sort of been "dissed" in its age (it is older than has been thought) and in its importance.

Wideford Hill cairn revetment walls--April 11, 2022

Current science now suggests that the architectural development of chamber tombs across Orkney began with Wideford Hill cairn about 3500 BC...so it is considerably older than the former estimates which put its age between 3100BC to 3000 BC and considerably more important.

Recent excavations nearby on Wideford Hill (2002 and 2013) have confirmed two Neolithic settlements on the slopes below the cairn.  Radiocarbon tests date these settlements to 3500 BC, and suggest that these Neolithic villages were initially built of timber.  Stone-built houses then commonly replaced timber structures around 3300 BC, some time after Wideford Hill cairn was built. 

These Neolithic settlements on Wideford Hill were occupied until 2900 BC to 2800 BC or so.  Research indicates that for a majority of Neolithic villages on Orkney, "a disjuncture" occurred around 2800 BC.  Meaning, they were  abandoned at nearly the same time.  The question is why?

Wideford passage grate

The sites were reoccupied a century or so later, in about 2700 BC.  But settlement patterns had shifted--i.e. a change in house architecture, larger houses and different worked pottery.  These "reoccupied" villages continued until a "final" abandonment around 2400 BC which coincides roughly with the advent of the Bronze Age.

As to wild speculations, this layman will submit one here.  Usual suspects for a widespread "disjuncture" are:  war, famine, disease. There is also environmental calamity.

Of note, the Orkney Neolithic disjuncture evidently occurred at nearly the same time with what is increasingly being viewed as a Holocene Era comet strike in the ocean off Madagascar, c. 2800 BC--a recent geological event well within the memory of humankind.  The depth at the strike (at Burckle Crater) is about 12,500 feet, and this apparently triggered megatsunamis in the Indian Ocean.  There is some dispute.  And while entirely speculative here, it is possible such an oceanic strike also affected the Orkney islands, and very likely most coastal settlements around the globe.  

This Neolithic comet strike in the Indian Ocean may even be the origin of "The Flood" stories described in so many cultures worldwide.  First passed on by oral recitations around the hearths; then by scribes setting it into writing for safekeeping.       

Wideford Hill etchings on chamber lintel--April 11, 2022

Speaking of which, one of the things I did want to photograph in Wideford cairn were the "incised" Neolithic markings inside the tomb.  These are linear geometric marks--for example V.  Prevailing wisdom seems to think these types of nearly "runic-like" marks found in several Neolithic structures on Mainland Orkney are not a written language.  Perhaps.  But then again, these people had far greater geographic reach than has generally been attributed to them.

For example, besides more advanced chemical and physical dating techniques like radiocarbon today, one biomarker of the time boundary at about 3300 BC is the presence or absence of the Orkney Vole.

Due to glaciation in the last Ice Age, this animal does not exist in Britain, nor could it have survived in Orkney.  It is found in continental Europe however.  The Orkney Vole appears in the archaeological record of Orkney c. 3300 BC.  Thus, it is assumed to have been transported via sea trade with Europe.  If so, having a "written language" or at least a form of tally marks is certainly within the realm of possibility.   

I had a sharp LED flashlight in Wideford cairn, but honestly I could not tell for certain whether I had identified any incised Neolithic "art" or not.  It is said that these Neolithic markings are upon the lintels over chambers.  One lintel seemed to be figured, so I photographed it, with flash.

Graffiti carved inside Wideford Hill Cairn--April 11, 2022

Elsewhere, though, preservationists mentioned carved graffiti (late Victorian or Edwardian) has all but obliterated Neolithic "markings".  It is now a criminal offense to deface these protected monuments (from 1935 onward).  Whether that effectively halts such destruction, is another story.  Just recently defacement of standing stones at Machrie Mor on Arran have been reported via the BBC.  And no, I did not carve the W as seen in the graffiti etchings at Wideford Hill.  

Graffiti carved Giant's Grave on Arran--2019

An aside, but we may recognize the W.T. carved inside Wideford's cairn.  It may be found on the defaced Giants' Graves long chambered tomb (a Clyde type--not an Orkney Maeshowe type) on the Isle of Arran which we visited Easter 2019.  If memory serves, the same styled "W.T." was associated with a date of 1883 AD and found carved into the long passage grave's massive stone slab roof.  It had had been pulled or spun off the tomb by vandals long ago.