Growing up in Thurso, where many streets have the names of the Viking Earls of Orkney, the Viking era in history has always been interesting to me. My father's family is from Shetland where the traditions are more Nordic than Scottish so it is perhaps not so unusual that I feel a strong connection with this time in history, especially the seafaring aspects.  The exploration of this era in Orcadian history began for me long before the exploration phase of the trip began, when we arrived at Gills Bay, near John o'Groats (seen here below from www.caithness.org)                           

One of the key historical texts of the time, the Orkneyinga Saga, talks about two men who stole money from the shrine at St Magnus Cathedral.  One of these was a man from eastern Caithness, called Gill, who went mad with the shame of having done such a deed and drowned himself in a bay near his home, Gill's Bay? Whether or not this is the true origins of the bay is difficult to tell, but it is still an interesting story all the same.  This happened long after the Vikings were settled in Orkney though.

Viking is an Old Norse word meaning Pirate.  It shows that initially, these people came from Norway (and later other parts of Scandinavia such as Denmark and Iceland) as raiders but on finding good farming, fishing and relationships with the local people, settled in both the Orkney and Shetland Islands.  Although it is generally accepted as the first major British appearance by the Vikings, raiding and trading in the Northern Isles had probably been going on for many years before the raids began on Lindisfarne priory in 793.  Some suggest that the Vikings moved into the earlier Brochs, although the first truly Viking settlements began to appear around the early 9th century.

The name Hoy is itself derived from the Old Norse word "Haey" meaning High Island, a good description for the cliff faces and hills seen from the seas around it.  At this time, the low lying part of the island around Longhope, South Walls, was a separate island, before the silt built up in to the Ayre causeway now connecting the two.  Scapa Flow, comes from the

Hoy was not really a main feature in the Orkneyinga Saga although it does talk of Jon Wing, a farmer living at Upland in Hoy.  There is no Upland farm marked on the modern map of Hoy, so one of my personal goals for the exploration was to investigate possible places that this could be....

Firstly, I knew that many current buildings were built on or using the ruins of existing buildings, and that most of the Vikings were based on the mainland, so the northeastern side of the island facing across to the mainland would be the best place to start looking.  Secondly, with the Vikings being mostly sea-based, I knew that there would have to be a sheltered bay for storing boats close by good farmland, so that narrowed my search further.  Ward Hill, like the many others across the islands, is so-called because it is the highest point on the island and it was from here that the "ward fires" were lit to show impending danger.  Someone would need to light such a fire, so it is not difficult to imagine that if Jon Wing's farm was close to the hill, one of his people would be in charge of lighting this fire in times of danger.  Eventually, I was left with two possible locations for Upland....the current Hoy Lodge (OS 7 230039) or the farm below the Howes of Quoyawa (OS 7 243024).  Both of these sites are near Ward Hill, close to good sources of water for drinking/washing etc, and close to the Bays of Creekland and Quoys for fishing/keeping boats.  The Whaness farm site is in line of sight with the Earl's Bu at Orphir on the mainland, home of Earl Harald, so would have been useful for signalling to the Earl any important news.  I then began to think that this site is also close to the Dwarfie Stane....

Could it be that there were people living in this stone as watchmen?  From the stone, you can see right to the bay at Rackwick on the west coast of the island.  As most settlements were around Scapa Flow on the east, Rackwick would be a good place for potential enemies to land their ships before walking through the fairly hidden valley to the settlement on the east.  If there were 2 people (for the double bed size sleeping area) then one could either light a signal fire on Ward Hill opposite to call for forces to sail from the mainland, or run to Upland to raise a fighting army there, while one hid inside or kept further watch.  If any enemy men came to investigate the large stone, their superstitions would say that it was the home of a Dwarf and so should be avoided.

Once I had got back to Bo'ness with my books, I saw that the Orkneyinga Saga actually marked Upland on its ancient map, showing it to be around the Hoy Lodge area.  I looked again at the modern OS map and found that to the northern end of Bay of Creekland (OS 7 236048) is a Bu, the Norse word for farm, and that this is on the edge of a small cliff, sloping up towards Bu Hill.  It is difficult to tell how the landscape would have looked in the Viking era, but it most likely this farm which was known as Upland, home of Jon Wing.  It may have been a steep slope down to where the shore was in Viking times, or it may have been that the farm was still just on the edge of a steep cliff, but the land around the Bu can certainly be described as Up.  It is close again to good drinking water, good farmland and good boating/fishing at the Bay of Creekland, and is near enough to Ward Hill to light the ward fire in plenty of time. Quoy, the name given to the bay close to Creekland is the local word for sheep fold or sheep pen, so it could be said that Jon Wing's Upland Bu encompassed both sites I initially thought of.

The picture above, taken from Ward Hill, shows the Bay of Creekland, with the Bu just to the top left of the bay.  It is possible all this land belonged in the 1100s to a man named Jon Wing. Graemsay and Mainland are in the background.  Orkney writer George Mackay Brown writes in Magnus about a boy called Sigurd Kalisson from the Bu in Hoy who goes with future Earls (Saint) Magnus Erlendson and Hakon Paulson for schooling at the monastery on the Brough of Birsay, and this would have been later in time that Jon Wing's Upland, so this could be the same place too.

The Vikings a runic language now known as Futhark and presented rune stones to celebrate a special occasion.  Runes were carved into the sacred yew tree, or into stones, usually by an expert rune maker.  The runes below (by a slightly less expert rune maker!) show Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Haey (Viking spelling of Hoy) and the initials of the four members of our exploration group.  The two runes at the bottom right, Raido and Othila signify a long journey and learning/passing on/sharing of knowledge, which I think sums up our exploration well.