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And one final post from my Inishmurray trip - Lady Gregory’s place was of course Coole Park, but the autocorrect thought it knew better… And an excuse for one more image of unforgettable Inishmurray.
August 21, 2025 at 2:31 PM
And one final post from my Inishmurray trip - Lady Gregory’s place was of course Coole Park, but the autocorrect thought it knew better… And an excuse for one more image of unforgettable Inishmurray.
No material evidence of Vikings here at all (yet!). And interesting that the name Inishmurray is not Norse-derived, but Irish: Inis Muirigh or Muiredaig, after an early Irish bishop. Maybe those cliffs and that cashel did their work! All now deserted, but so beautiful.
August 21, 2025 at 2:27 PM
No material evidence of Vikings here at all (yet!). And interesting that the name Inishmurray is not Norse-derived, but Irish: Inis Muirigh or Muiredaig, after an early Irish bishop. Maybe those cliffs and that cashel did their work! All now deserted, but so beautiful.
Nothing to do with Vikings, but a marvellous and melancholy record of the island’s children from the Brady family.
August 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Nothing to do with Vikings, but a marvellous and melancholy record of the island’s children from the Brady family.
The monks finally left Inishmurray - it’s not clear exactly when - and in the Middle Ages it became an important pilgrimage site. There was a later village there too, but that was abandoned in the middle of the twentieth century.
August 21, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The monks finally left Inishmurray - it’s not clear exactly when - and in the Middle Ages it became an important pilgrimage site. There was a later village there too, but that was abandoned in the middle of the twentieth century.
But maybe Vikings could have anchored in this deep but narrow and rather tricky natural harbour. I swam there yesterday, but happily there is no photographic record of that!
August 21, 2025 at 2:04 PM
But maybe Vikings could have anchored in this deep but narrow and rather tricky natural harbour. I swam there yesterday, but happily there is no photographic record of that!
This is the approach to Inishmurray from Drumcliffe Bay - you’d have thought the monks would have been safe from Vikings - and their ecclesiastical buildings were all inside an enormous stone cashel. No sandy or pebble beaches to draw longships up on to.
August 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
This is the approach to Inishmurray from Drumcliffe Bay - you’d have thought the monks would have been safe from Vikings - and their ecclesiastical buildings were all inside an enormous stone cashel. No sandy or pebble beaches to draw longships up on to.
And at last, Inishmurray! This coastal pool was long ago known by locals (Inishmurray is now uninhabited) as Lochán na Catha - the little loch of the war. Folklore has it that it once ran red with the blood of vanquished Vikings! The monks must have put up a good fight!
August 20, 2025 at 6:34 PM
And at last, Inishmurray! This coastal pool was long ago known by locals (Inishmurray is now uninhabited) as Lochán na Catha - the little loch of the war. Folklore has it that it once ran red with the blood of vanquished Vikings! The monks must have put up a good fight!
And this morning, about to board the boat to Inishmurray island, from the harbour at Rosses Point, with our wonderfully learned guide Martin Enright.
August 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
And this morning, about to board the boat to Inishmurray island, from the harbour at Rosses Point, with our wonderfully learned guide Martin Enright.
On the way up to Sligo, stopped off for a coffee in Lady Gregory’s Cooke Park visitor centre. The trees are (almost) in Yeats’ “autumn beauty”. And the weather is glorious - set fair for Inishmurray!
August 20, 2025 at 6:27 PM
On the way up to Sligo, stopped off for a coffee in Lady Gregory’s Cooke Park visitor centre. The trees are (almost) in Yeats’ “autumn beauty”. And the weather is glorious - set fair for Inishmurray!
At last! A fourth attempt to get to Inishmurray, as part of my @Leverhulme LegacyoftheVikings project. Vikings had less trouble, repeatedly sacking the island in the late eight and early ninth century. Last summer, bad weather prevented my visit. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! Off now to Sligo.
August 19, 2025 at 7:41 AM
At last! A fourth attempt to get to Inishmurray, as part of my @Leverhulme LegacyoftheVikings project. Vikings had less trouble, repeatedly sacking the island in the late eight and early ninth century. Last summer, bad weather prevented my visit. Fingers crossed for tomorrow! Off now to Sligo.
About to leave Shetland. Somewhere on this hillside is a Viking soapstone quarry, but I couldn’t find it. And the weather was too warm (!) for an energetic search. Enjoy this nice sign instead. Next stop for my @Leverhulme Viking Legacy project: Inishmurray, off Ireland’s west coast. Maybe July.
May 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
About to leave Shetland. Somewhere on this hillside is a Viking soapstone quarry, but I couldn’t find it. And the weather was too warm (!) for an energetic search. Enjoy this nice sign instead. Next stop for my @Leverhulme Viking Legacy project: Inishmurray, off Ireland’s west coast. Maybe July.
A final post from Mousa, and perhaps one of my last from Shetland. The Egils saga story has a happy ending: Egill the hero marries Thora’s daughter. And today the broch is home to 8% of the UK population of storm petrels, which nest amongst the broch’s stones, returning only at night.
May 13, 2025 at 5:22 PM
A final post from Mousa, and perhaps one of my last from Shetland. The Egils saga story has a happy ending: Egill the hero marries Thora’s daughter. And today the broch is home to 8% of the UK population of storm petrels, which nest amongst the broch’s stones, returning only at night.
The story of Björn and Thora: Thora’s brother refuses the marriage, and when Björn abducts her anyway and goes home his father forbids it too and insists that she be treated “like his daughter or Björn’s sister”. So they elope, and Björn’s mother has secretly packed her clothes for the journey.
May 13, 2025 at 5:09 PM
The story of Björn and Thora: Thora’s brother refuses the marriage, and when Björn abducts her anyway and goes home his father forbids it too and insists that she be treated “like his daughter or Björn’s sister”. So they elope, and Björn’s mother has secretly packed her clothes for the journey.
The Mousa broch is mentioned in Orkneyinga saga when Erlendr abducts the mother of Haraldr Jarl and holes up in the broch, besieged by Haraldr. In Egils saga, Björn and Thora elope from Norway and are shipwrecked on Mousa; they spend the winter together in the broch. Two similar stories?
May 13, 2025 at 4:49 PM
The Mousa broch is mentioned in Orkneyinga saga when Erlendr abducts the mother of Haraldr Jarl and holes up in the broch, besieged by Haraldr. In Egils saga, Björn and Thora elope from Norway and are shipwrecked on Mousa; they spend the winter together in the broch. Two similar stories?
Spent an idyllic few hours today on Mousa, looking at the 13 m high Pictish broch, and even climbing the Iron Age staircase between the double walls to the top. An extraordinary structure, with a strong Viking connection - to Egils saga, and Orkneyinga saga.
May 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Spent an idyllic few hours today on Mousa, looking at the 13 m high Pictish broch, and even climbing the Iron Age staircase between the double walls to the top. An extraordinary structure, with a strong Viking connection - to Egils saga, and Orkneyinga saga.
A different kind of sea-borne invasion of Shetland?
May 13, 2025 at 7:51 AM
A different kind of sea-borne invasion of Shetland?
And farewell to Unst, looking back on the Viking hillside from the ferry.
May 12, 2025 at 6:26 PM
And farewell to Unst, looking back on the Viking hillside from the ferry.
And on the way up to the longhouse remains at Belmont on Unst, there’s this wonderful set of Bronze Age cup marks. To get to Unst you have to get a ferry via Yell. I read that the names Unst and Yell may be pre-Celtic - so would that be a Common Brittonic, a Bronze Age language? Blimey.
May 12, 2025 at 6:23 PM
And on the way up to the longhouse remains at Belmont on Unst, there’s this wonderful set of Bronze Age cup marks. To get to Unst you have to get a ferry via Yell. I read that the names Unst and Yell may be pre-Celtic - so would that be a Common Brittonic, a Bronze Age language? Blimey.
At Belmont on Unst there’s the remains of one of about 60 Viking longhouses. You can see the outline quite clearly, and the cattle byre. Apparently the whole hillside was a thriving farm complex, and the main building was altered several times over the centuries of Viking occupation.
May 12, 2025 at 6:16 PM
At Belmont on Unst there’s the remains of one of about 60 Viking longhouses. You can see the outline quite clearly, and the cattle byre. Apparently the whole hillside was a thriving farm complex, and the main building was altered several times over the centuries of Viking occupation.
This is Belmont, on Unst, which I visited today in glorious sunshine. It’s said to be the heart of Viking Shetland. If you want to know how the most northerly island in the UK can be the heart of anything, look on a map big enough to show Norway, Iceland and the Faeroes.
May 12, 2025 at 6:11 PM
This is Belmont, on Unst, which I visited today in glorious sunshine. It’s said to be the heart of Viking Shetland. If you want to know how the most northerly island in the UK can be the heart of anything, look on a map big enough to show Norway, Iceland and the Faeroes.
And finally for today, the view from my hotel bathroom window. I was going to post a picture of the Viking Bus Station, or a big poster on the quay featuring Njáll’s famous words about building a nation from law, from Njáls saga - in Old Norse. But this is even better, I think.
May 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
And finally for today, the view from my hotel bathroom window. I was going to post a picture of the Viking Bus Station, or a big poster on the quay featuring Njáll’s famous words about building a nation from law, from Njáls saga - in Old Norse. But this is even better, I think.
Wonderful as the Pictish art is, I’m back with the Vikings in The Shetland Museum in Lerwick. First of all, this strangely sinuous runic inscription, and secondly, is this an unfinished hogback? Where are the bears, and the roof shingles?
May 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Wonderful as the Pictish art is, I’m back with the Vikings in The Shetland Museum in Lerwick. First of all, this strangely sinuous runic inscription, and secondly, is this an unfinished hogback? Where are the bears, and the roof shingles?
And also from Papil, on West Burra, a really intriguing Pictish stone. Just look at those weird bird headed creatures pecking a human head! This stone in the churchyard is a facsimile; the original is in Edinburgh.
Did the Vikings really just eradicate the Picts on Shetland?
Did the Vikings really just eradicate the Picts on Shetland?
May 11, 2025 at 3:00 PM
And also from Papil, on West Burra, a really intriguing Pictish stone. Just look at those weird bird headed creatures pecking a human head! This stone in the churchyard is a facsimile; the original is in Edinburgh.
Did the Vikings really just eradicate the Picts on Shetland?
Did the Vikings really just eradicate the Picts on Shetland?
In Lerwick, in the Shetland Museum, looking at a Pictish stone from the early Christian settlement at Papil on West Burra: monks on horseback. Also in the museum, the world famous Scatness Bear, more Pictish artistry!
May 11, 2025 at 2:56 PM
In Lerwick, in the Shetland Museum, looking at a Pictish stone from the early Christian settlement at Papil on West Burra: monks on horseback. Also in the museum, the world famous Scatness Bear, more Pictish artistry!
Lovely morning exploring East and West Burra as part of my @Leverhulme Legacy of the Vikings project. No sign of the broch claimed on the road sign, but wonderful scenery. This is the little bridge connecting East and West Burra.
May 11, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Lovely morning exploring East and West Burra as part of my @Leverhulme Legacy of the Vikings project. No sign of the broch claimed on the road sign, but wonderful scenery. This is the little bridge connecting East and West Burra.