The strange feeling in my head began when the Historic Scotland guide said, “We can’t really call it a burial chamber as no bodies were ever found here…”

It wasn’t a headache, more of a lightness…. almost a prompting, an invitation… but for what?

I had been staring at a wolf carved in stone. The opening picture, taken later on that day, is of a jewellery copy of the ‘Maeshowe Dragon’, first etched into the stone of the Maeshowe chamber by visiting Vikings. It was dated to around AD 1150 – some two thousand years after the Neolithic settlements on Orkney were mysteriously abandoned.

Some say the dragon looks more like a wolf…

Orkney has an ancient civilisation. The origins of the sophisticated people who settled and farmed here here during the stone age – 5,000 years ago – are unclear. Their buildings were well constructed and remain in good condition today, so long after their builders’ world has gone; which is why Orkney is so special: nowhere else in Europe offers such a concentration of ancient history in so wonderful a setting.

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