Chamber of Secrets

Published on Thursday 6 April 2006 01:39

BEING voted one of the Seven Wonders of Scotland is an amazing feat for the finest but remotest architectural treasures of prehistoric Europe. The 5,000-year-old Maes Howe chamber is not one of Scotland's biggest visitor attractions, although 35,000 visitors a year is a hefty footfall for Orkney and means ticketed tours are the only way to see inside during summer months.

Useful information

Maes Howe 01856 761606

Skara Brae Visitor Centre 01856 841815

John O' Groats-Kirkwall Ferry (summer only) 01955 611353, jogferry.co.uk

Pentland Ferries 01856 831226 pentlandferries.co.uk

NorthLink Orkney/Shetland Ferries, 01856 885500 northlinkferries.co.ukThere are no "I crawled the passage" T-shirts or "See yer Solstice here" tea towels - yet. But the oldest built structure in Scotland, with one of the world's most electrifying celebrations of winter sun, has once again transcended itself and kick-started Orcadians into their most impressive burst of organised voting since Cameron Stout won Big Brother.

BBC Radio Orkney was first on the publicity trail - my mobile rang within hours of the competition being announced. Anywhere else, that might mean very little. In Orkney everyone listens to their own station. The Orcadian and Orkney Today quickly followed - and the island publicity machine was completely activated with a quick phone call to the head of Kirkwall Grammar.

Stones, archaeology and nature are not just remote symbols for young folk of Orkney. The islands are littered with ancient sites - many, like the Tomb of Eagles, are proudly maintained by the locals who uncovered them. At the last count there were 2,993, roughly eight per square mile. And the key ceremonial sites - including Maes Howe - suggest the culture that built them was peaceful and sun-centred.

Half a mile from the chamber is the Ring of Brodgar, a circle originally of 60 stones built to catch the first rays of midsummer sun; some say it was a giant clock. The nearby Ring of Stenness hosts the moon at the autumn equinox and originally had 12 stones, perhaps a prehistoric calendar. Some archaeologists think a temple for the spring equinox remains undiscovered; the winter solstice is spoken for by the cairned chamber of Maes Howe - and everyone has their solstice story.

On my last visit, our guide breathlessly described standing in Maes Howe as the sun crept along the stone passage so slowly it illuminated the floor pebble by pebble, stretching into a band of gold across the back wall for a full minute before shrinking into total darkness. Local MSP Jim Wallace told of a last-minute decision to visit by a famous convener of Orkney Council. He heaved his considerable bulk along the passageway anxious to see the solstice magic, only to look at a sea of disappointed faces inside. He'd blocked the sunset completely.

What's special about Maes Howe - in addition to the solstice display and astonishing proximity to the Rings - are the feelings of happiness and tranquillity so many have reported inside - and the largest collection of runic writings left anywhere by our Viking forebears. The chamber was opened in 1862 but nothing found inside except the boastful, funny, readable runic messages by Vikings who broke in to shelter during a terrible storm in 1123. Their messages are graffiti of their day, just like the kind we carve on walls or trees.

Stand for five minutes at Kirkwall Airport and you realise the centrality of people, stories and gossip has changed not one iota. Inquiring after the boss of a local car hire firm, I was told he'd flown out to Aberdeen - with his wife expecting a new baby in the hospital there any minute now. Never mind the football results, the whole airport was on red alert.

There are no secret disappearances from an island. Elsewhere that can seem interfering and claustrophobic; somehow, Orkney seems different, easier, more relaxed and more confident than the turbulent Western Isles. Orcadians could organise the rest of Scotland into a paper bag.

The islands extract more grants than any other farming community and have created a clean, natural feelgood image with worldwide demand for its produce. Milk production is high because some bright sparks invented the high-value dairy businesses Orkney Cheddar and Orkney Ice Cream. Highland Park whisky has performed a minor marketing miracle, tourist information booklets are beautifully-produced, persuasive and sit in neat stacks everywhere. Music is live, high quality and distinctive - catch the Folk Festival at the end of May. The jewellery industry is so successful that one in five pieces hallmarked in Scotland now comes from Orkney. The industry "grand dames", Ola Gorrie and Sheila Fleet, base their distinctive, modern designs on runic patterns found in - Maes Howe.

Why do all roads lead back to that mysterious mound? Because Maes Howe is a tribute to the strength of people working together. The quality of construction, size of the sandstone blocks used, the precision in quarrying and stone-cutting, would have taken 39,000 man hours - and the result puts the Scottish Parliament builders to shame. Some of the slabs still fit so well together a knife blade cannot be inserted between them - in a building predating the Great Pyramid of Egypt by 300 years.

What could such a splendid construction be for? Very few places have such a fabulous array of possibilities - with no firm answers. Make up your own mind via the webcam installed by the ingenious Charles Tait on www.maeshowe.co.uk

Better still, take a week, avoid July and just go.

7 FACTS

Billy Connolly danced naked at the Ring of Brodgar when making his World Tour TV series. He started a bit of a craze and naked tourists now occasionally dance there.

Skara Brae lay hidden for thousands of years until 1850's great storm uncovered the site. Carbon-dating later showed they were lived in between 3200BC and 2200BC.

Maes Howe was excavated in 1861 and stories emerged of an unpleasant spirit, which folklore experts believe to have been a Hogboon.

The Orkney Inga Saga tells the tale of two Viking invaders who were trapped in Maes Howe and went mad.

Skara Brae was excavated in the 1930s by Gordon Childs, a Marxist archaeologist. He said the site was only 1,000 years old and that its people were the first Communists, with no hierarchy and no gods.

The Stones of Stenness was rebuilt in the 1930s with an added stone altar said to be for human sacrifice. The theory was discredited and the altar dismantled in a 1960s raid by rebel archeologists.

Prehistoric Orkney was declared a World Heritage site in 1999. Locals say: "If you cut the soil it bleeds archaeology."