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The geology of the Orkney islands in northern Scotland is dominated by the Devonian Old Red Sandstone (ORS). In the southwestern part of Mainland , this sequence can be seen to rest unconformably on a Moinian type metamorphic basement .
These rocks are exposed throughout Orkney, notably in coastal cliffs of Eday and western Sanday, South Ronaldsay and the Deerness peninsula of Mainland.There are spectacular exposures of the Hoy Sandstone Formation and particularly the Trowie Glen Sandstone Member in the precipitous cliffs of Hoy's west coast.
The assemblage of monumental Neolithic structures in Orkney is without parallel in the United Kingdom, and the Orkney Mainland provides an entire landscape of features from this period. During this time, complex new societies came to the fore that were a radical departure from the earlier hunter-gatherers and which were capable of creating ...
The Dwarfie Stane is the only chambered tomb in Orkney that is cut from stone rather than built from stones [5] and may be the only example of a Neolithic rock-cut tomb in Britain. [6] However, despite its unique construction, its plan is consistent with the so-called Orkney-Cromarty class of chambered tomb found throughout Orkney.
The eponymous Skaill knife was a commonly used tool in Skara Brae; it consists of a large stone flake, with a sharp edge used for cutting, knocked off a sandstone cobble. [46] This neolithic tool is named after Skara Brae's location in the Bay of Skaill on Orkney. [47] Skaill knives have been found throughout Orkney and Shetland.
The Stone of Setter is an extremely tall sandstone monolith of irregular shape. It dates to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, probably around 2nd millennium BC. [ 3 ] It measures approximately 4.5 m (15 ft) in height, 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) in width, and the stone varies in thickness from 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) at the base to 0.35 m (1 ft 2 in ...
In 1564 Lord Robert Stewart, natural son of James V of Scotland, who had visited Kirkwall twenty-four years before, was made sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, and received possession of the estates of the udallers; in 1581 he was created earl of Orkney by James VI, the charter being ratified ten years later to his son Patrick, but after Patrick's ...
The Old Man of Hoy is a red sandstone stack, perched on a plinth of basalt rock, and one of the tallest sea stacks in the UK. [4] [5] It is separated from the mainland by a 60-metre (200 ft) chasm strewn with debris, and has nearly vertical sides with a top just a few metres wide. [3]