Polygon, 2023, 187 p.

This is another of Birlinn’s Darkland Tales.

One summer day in 825 AD the red sail of Helgi Cleanshirt’s longship appears on the seas surrounding Iona. Helgi is intent on procuring the bones of Saint Columba for their supposed mystic powers. It turns out only one relic, a finger bone, remains, but Abbot Blathmac has buried it somewhere on the island’s only hill, Dùn Ì, so that none of the brothers can reveal its whereabouts. This, of course, does not end well for the monks and the lay people of the island.

While the rest of the longship’s crew is causing mayhem, the slightly tardy Grimur has come upon the island’s smithy, killed the blacksmith (somewhat luckily,) and been plied with her potent concoction by the meadwife. In his subsequent stupor he is taken for dead by his shipmates and buried.

There are thus only three survivors of the raid: Brother Martin, who hid in the latrine pit, that meadwife, Una, who had made herself scarce, and Grimur, who, on wakening, manages to dig himself out of the shallow grave with his knife.

The three then have to make do as best they can. Martin resolves to be the best monk he can be and to complete the illuminated manuscript he had been working on, Grimur to rub along with the other two and to understand the strange religion of the islanders, Una to survive. What livestock remains has to roam the island more or less untended.

When a delegation from the mainland arrives the three are told they cannot be protected and ought to leave but all are unwilling to do so.

Later, an Irish princess, Bronagh, turns up, attempting to escape an unwanted marriage and asking to become an anchoress. Brother Martin complies with her request but finds her presence a sinful distraction. Bronagh soon enough, though, finds the monastic life too irksome. Una and Grimur manage to find solace in each other.

We are, here, in a clash of cultures; between the single-minded focus of the Norse warriors, exploiting the usefulness of their brutality, and the Christianity of the monks, that intense faith manifested in the face of extreme adversity, exemplified by Grimur’s incomprehension of its sheer oddness and Martin’s redoubling of his devotion despite its failure to protect the monks; but also between that Celtic Christianity, its call to utter dedication, and our modern individualistic eyes. Greig conjures it all well. Like all the Darkland Tales so far this is beautifully written, with economically well-drawn and believable characters.

There is still Helgi Cleanshirt’s return to come, the aftermath of which hints that there may have been a miracle occurring on that island in the interim.

(A foreword mentions that Iona has previously been known as I, IO, HII, HIA, IOUA. IOUA was in the 18^th century corrupted to IONA by a typographical error.)

Pedant’s corner:- gulley (gully – used later,) “his prophesy” (the noun is spelled prophecy; prophesy is the verb,) “He wanted …. to dissolve in the enormity of God” (surely Brother Martin would not think of his God as monstrous? ‘He wanted …. to dissolve in the immensity of God’, then,) “Jesus’ head” (Jesus’s head.)

A couple of buildings in Kirkwall I missed on our 2017 visit to Orkney.

The Library:-

Closer view:-

Window and decal detail:-

Viking ship detail above a doorway of the Post Office:-

The most outstanding feature of the Lindisfarne skyline is Lindisfarne Castle – instantly recognisable. It’s now in the care of the National Trust.

The castle entrance is very restricted, up a flight of fairly narrow wooden steps, but there is a wider plaza above:-

One of the rooms has a ship model hanging from the ceiling!

Fireplace in kitchen. (This is flanked by a cupboard and a settle):-

Kitchen cupboard:-

Settle:-

Reverse of settle:-

Walled garden from Lindisfarne Castle. The garden was designed by famous gardener Gertrude Jekyll. The surroundings on Lindisfarne are so bleak and windswept there has to be a wall round it in order for anything to grow.

From the island side the castle looks very different:-

Castle from walled garden. Apparently the area just to the left of the castle in the photo above was where the Vikings would coast up back in the day as the sea reached in further then:-

Last March we had to take a trip across to the west to Tarbet which is on (freshwater) Loch Lomond side. A narrow stretch of land (and hill) separates it from Arrochar on (sea) Loch Long. There’s only about a mile between them.

The Vikings once dragged their boats over the pass on rollers in order to stravaig up and down Loch Lomond.

The War Memorial lies beside the A 83 a bit nearer to Arrochar than Tarbet but covers both villages.

Reverse view:-

</center>

The dedication is unusual in using Roman Numerals. “In memory MCMXIV-XVIII. MCMXXXIX-XLV”

At the base of the memorial this plaque reads, “The villagers of Arrochar and Tarbet Commemorate 50 Years of Peace VE and VJ Days 1995. With gratitude to those who served.”

Maeshowe is another neolithic site in Orkney I’d always wished to visit. It’s a 5,000 years old chambered cairn, with three burial chambers, two of which dog-leg to the right, one to the left. The bodies were exposed to the elements to be stripped down to the bones before being placed in the chamber.

Unlike other sites on Orkney you can only visit Maeshowe on a guided tour. The car park by the access path has been closed and access is only via a bus from the Visitor Centre in nearby Stenness village. The guide said the road was too dangerous to allow cars to turn in and out and pedestrians to cross unsupervised. Apparently someone had been clocked going at 152 miles per hour along the road!

Unfortunately internal photographs are not allowed. The guide said that was for reasons of time.

You have to bend down and stoop for metres to get into the chamber proper through the access tunnel. You’ll find a photo of the tunnel here.

In deepest winter around the winter solstice a shaft of sunlight lights up the passage and enters the large central chamber. There is a webcam site which shows live pictures from November to February. They seem to have had some trouble with it last year though.

In 1153 some Vikings broke in to Maeshowe to get shelter during a snowstorm which lasted for days and spent their time carving runes. These can be dated fairly precisely as this type of runes was only in use for a short time. Some of the runes can be seen on the Orkneyjar web page.

Also inscribed was a fenrir which some people call the Maeshowe dragon.

Maeshowe from access path:-

Maeshowe showing ring rampart:-

From access path, showing entrance:-

Entrance:-

Maeshowe from south:-

From north:-

Stones of Stenness (to left) and Ness and Ring of Brodgar (to right) from Maeshowe. Loch of Harray in middle ground, Loch of Stenness above and to left :-

A couple of weeks ago, mostly on the good lady’s volition, we travelled to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland which was on show at the Scottish Parliament building. Its exhibition there finishes sometime in September and it will eventually end up in Melrose when the new rail line to the borders is complete.

It’s quite an impressive collection – of embroidery rather than tapestry but Hey-ho – of over 100 panels stitched by volunteers from round Scotland each one illustrating a piece of Scottish history.

I may get round to posting other views of the panels but this one featured Dumbarton Rock, which in 870 AD (or 870 CE if you prefer) fell to the Vikings:-

on the way back to where we’d parked I captured the building below on pixels. I’d passed it many times before in the car but never stopped near enough by. It’s the TSB bank in East Norton Place (London Road) Edinburgh.

The pillars on the corners are good. The street sign on the bank also says East Norton Place. From the other side the pillars are again stand outs. The style of the number 30 is nicely deco too.