The Early Settlers in Orkney

We had a busy and interesting day last week visiting historical sites from five thousand years ago. 

First we went to Maeshowe in Stenness.  It was fun crawling along the short tunnel to get in to the chambered tomb.  Everyone listened carefully to the custodian and asked questions about the people who may have used the site.  We also looked at the Maeshowe dragon 'drawn' on the wall.

 

 

 Then we travelled to Skara Brae.  Here we looked at the displays and went into the replica house. 

We spent time thinking about how the people might have felt in their homes.  We all agreed it would have been dark and smoky.

 

Then we walked along to the village.  It was very interesting listening to the custodian tell us how the land would have been shaped very different.  We were all keen to share our knowledge about the different furniture in the houses.

 

 After our lunch we went down on to the beach.  

Some of us built models of the houses and the Ring of Brodgar.

 



Finally, we went to the Ring of Brodgar. We played a game counting the number of stones and decided if statements, we were told, were true or false.   

 

 

We returned to school tired but having learned lots!

Investigating the Early Settlers

We have had a busy week learning about the Stone Age.  On Monday we went to the museum and looked at all of the evidence.  We recorded what we found out in pictures and notes.  Then on Friday one of the rangers from Historic Scotland came and showed us lots of different replica artefacts. 

It was very interesting learning about life in Orkney 5000 years ago!