PAPAY’S KNAP OF HOWAR
Papa Westray, or Papay, is one of the smallest inhabited Orkney isles. Around four miles long, and a mile across at its widest, it is nonetheless burgeoning with history, boasting some 60 sites of archaeological interest.
Here, you will find the restored Kirk of St Boniface, the remains of the medieval chapel at St Tredwell’s Loch, the chambered cairn (technically not Papay but on the even smaller Holm of Papay) and the Knap of Howar — possibly the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe.
Predating the more famous Skara Brae, the Knap of Howar consists of two structures connected by a passageway and would have been home to a family, or families, of Orcadian farmers, around 5,600 years ago.
One section, possibly the bed chamber, has a low stone bench running along the wall, while the other, with a large central hearth, seems to have been a place of food preparation.
Beds, shelves and partition screens can all still be seen. Remains found around the site suggest they would have farmed cattle, pigs and sheep here, as well as crops such as barley and wheat.
Fishing would have also sustained these people, and their diet would have included both fish and shellfish.
Pottery found here suggests they had had links to Neolithic sites such as Balbridie in Aberdeenshire, and Eilean Dòmhnuil in the Western Isles.
So, as you stand in this remote place, looking out as the sun sets into the Atlantic in the west, you share a view with people from 5,000 years ago, who did not view themselves as remote or solitary, but as part of a community that covered the north of Scotland, now vanished in time.