THE WOODS BENEATH THE WAVES: ORKNEY’S LOST LANDS

September 10, 2018 → 5:15 pm ─ 6:15 pm

| £3 – £5

Thousands of years ago, when sea level was lower than today, Orkney was a single landmass with a wooded landscape – with remnants which can still appear today at very low tides. And these, says Dr Scott Timpany of Orkney College UHI, give us clues to lost lands.

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A song about ancient Ireland, composed and sung by Lorcán Mac Mathúna, accompanying dramatised scenes from the battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday 1014. Irish and Icelandic accounts describe how the army of the Irish High King Brian Boru defeated a Norse invasion force led by Earl Sigurd of Orkney. The state of the tide played a role in the battle, enabling the Norse ships to land in the early morning but later cutting off the retreating Norsemen from them. A 19th-century calculation of the tides in the area confirmed the chroniclers’ details.