Video: The dead of winter – Maeshowe and the solstice

Saturday, December 21, 2024 (8:10 AM)

“The illumination lasts for a few minutes, then is quenched. It is a brief fleeting thing; yet it is a seal on the dying year, a pledge of renewal, a cry of resurrection. The sun will not renege on its ancient treaty with men and the earth and all the creatures..”

George Mackay Brown. Maeshowe at Midwinter. (1977)

Today, Saturday, December 21, is the winter solstice – a day inextricably linked to Maeshowe in Stenness.

With its south-westerly facing entrance, Maeshowe’s best known attribute is its orientation towards the setting sun around midwinter (read more here).

Five thousand years ago, as now, it is likely that the solstice marked the passing of time – the death of the old year and the birth of the new one. Even today, in the darkest depths of an Orkney winter, the solstice is a welcome milestone in the calendar after which we know the light will return.

This video was originally broadcast in 2021.

Presented by Word Heritage Site ranger Sandra Miller, it features Professor Colin Richards and Dr Ragnhild Ljosland of the UHI Archaeology Institute, Tom Muir and Alison Miller.