Old Stones

This old stone wall is right on the edge of the shore, but not connected to anything, there are no other buildings nearby.  It's been beautifully made, is more than two feet thick in places but is slowly slipping away.  

Nearby there is the broch where, in the 10th century, Thorfinn the Skull Splitter was buried.  Lots of Viking history in this part of Orkney . . . .

Hoxa appears in the Orkneyinga Saga as Haugaeið, ‘the isthmus with the mounds’ and the Saga also tells us that this is where Earl Thorfinn Skullsplitter was buried in the 10th century. These features support the idea that Hoxa was indeed a thing* site, as in Scandinavia these sites were frequently located in burial grounds and by isthmuses.


*Viking court or parliament