History & Archaeology Orcadian Chronology
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ORCADIAN CHRONOLOGY INTRODUCTION - H ISTORY & A RCHAEOLOGY BC 1398 Henry Sinclair visits America?? North Isles The Norse domination lasted c.10000 Ice retreats, sea level rising 1468 Impignoration to Scotland 1862 Maeshowe cleared out six hundred years and this c.6000 Grassland, hazel-scrub, ferns 1471 Act of Annexation to Scotland 1865 Junction Road, Kirkwall, built influence is still strong in the cover islands, first people arrive?? 1486 Kirkwall made a Royal Burgh First steamship to North Isles 3900 First known settlers Cathedral to Kirkwall Corporation 1867 First Stromness lifeboat Saltaire isles today. Orkney was of Vegetation becoming more open 1492 Columbus reaches America 1870 J&W Tait founded great strategic importance 3800 Climate deteriorates 1513 Henry Sinclair II killed at Flodden 1874 First Longhope lifeboat during Viking times, and the 3600 Knap of Howar oldest deposits 1528 Battle of Summerdale 1879 Kirkwall waterworks installed 3200 Skara Brae oldest deposits 1540 King James V visits Orkney 1887 Stromness Herring fishery starts exploits of the Earls and their 3000 Chambered Tombs being used 1541 Bishop Reid extends Bishop's Palac e 1890 Mermaid at Newark, Deerness supporters are related colour - Ring of Brodgar , Standing Stones 1560 Noltland Castle started 1892 SS St Ola I starts her long service fully in the Orkneyinga Saga . c.2750 Maeshowe built 1567 Norse laws ratified by Scots 1908 Stromness herring boom over 2700 Start of Great Pyramid Age 1574 Earl's Palace, Birsay , built 1913 Peak of Stronsay Herring boom 2600 Not many trees left 1581 Robert Stewart made Earl 1914 Electric Theatre opens Later medieval times saw a 2500 Skara Brae last occupied 1588 Spanish survivors settle in Westray 1915 First Great Skuas breed large influx of Lowland Scots c.2000 Sandfiold cist burial 1590 First inn at Stromness 1916 HMS Hampshire sunk due to the close proximity of HMS Vanguard Knowes o’Trotty 1600s Stronsay Herring fishery 1917 blows up and then annexation by 1300 Peat bogs developing becoming important 1919 German Fleet scuttles itself Midsummer sunset at the Standing Stones of Stenness 1159 Hekla erupts 1607 Earl's Palace finished, Kirkwall 1920 N Zealand Wild White Clover Scotland. Orkney gradually 700 Iron Age round houses 1614 Kirkwall Castle besieged 1937 End of Stronsay herring boom INTRODUCTION In "What The Bronze Age succeeded became more of a backwater 600 Oldest Broch deposits 1615 Patrick & Robert Stewart executed, 1939 World War II, is an Orcadian?" George the Neolithic. From this peri - and suffered as a result of c.325 Pytheas circumnavigates Orkney Castle demolished, Cathedral saved sinking of "HMS Royal Oak " Mackay Brown concludes by od burnt mounds , middens, 214 Great Wall of China constructed 1633 Carrick House built 1940 Work starts on Churchill Barriers exploitation by Scottish Earls c.400 Broch of Gurness in use 1666 Great Fire of London; 1943 Italian Chapel started calling him, A fine mixter- cist and barrow graves as well as well by the Merchant AD Newton realises gravity of situation 1947 Albert Kinema burns down maxter! This is literally true, as ruins of small houses Lairds. Only in the 19 th centu - 33 Death of Christ 1679 Wreck of the Crown , Deerness 1951 MV St Ola II commissioned as Orkney, at the cross-roads remain. This epoch was 43 Orkney said to submit to Claudius 1700 Hudson's Bay Company starts Costa Head windmill ry were real farming improve - 83 Agricola's fleet said to visit Orkney to recruit Orkneymen 1955 Phoenix Cinema opens of the Atlantic, North Britain marked by a deterioration in ments to arrive, when steam c.500 Celtic monks arrive 1705 Earl's Palace ruinous 1957 Lyness Base closes down and the North Sea, has been climate and changes in society power finally made sea trans - 600 Norsemen start to appear in West 1721 Kelp-making introduced to isles 1959 Russia launches first satellite on the seafaring map ever as well as the appearance of port more regular. 632 Death of Muhammad 1725 Pirate Gow captured at Calf Sound 1967 Loganair starts inter-island service since people started to go to bronze tools and weapons. 793 Major Viking raids begin 1730 Archie Angel survives shipwreck 1969 First landing on the Moon 800s Norse migration 1743 Stromness becomes free Longhope Lifeboat disaster sea in boats. Many visitors During the later 19 th and then c.872 Harald Fairhair King of Norway of Kirkwall taxes 1972 Kirkwall lifeboat established have come and gone over the About 700BC larger round the 20 th century there have Sigurd of Moere first Earl 1763 Washington Irving 's father 1973 MV St Ola III start of ro-ro millennia, some staying to set - houses started to appear and 955 Earl Sigurd the Stout baptised arrives New York 1974 Orkney Islands Council formed been the effects of the boom in 1000 Leif Ericson discovers America 1770 Grass, clover and turnip seeds 1977 Flotta Oil Terminal starts up tle, others leaving only their later the spectacular brochs , Herring fishing , two World 1014 Thorfinn becomes Earl introduced, farming reforms 1978 Orkney Norway Friendship Assoc genes. The regular input of some with large settlements Wars, further great strides in c.1030 Earl Rognvald Brusison 1776 American Declaration of 1983 Wind power starts Burgar Hill new blood and ideas has around them, were developed. agriculture, North Sea Oil first Earl to live in Kirkwall Independence 1987 St Sunniva starts link to Shetlan d ensured that the Orcadians The introduction of iron for c.1035 First St Olaf’s Kirk built 1789 First lighthouse lit on North 850 th anniv of St Magnus Cathedral and the influx of large num - 1046 Thorfinn sole Earl Ronaldsay 1991 1st edition of this guide published are the versatile and welcom - tools and weapons would have bers of mainly English immi - 1065 Earl Thorfinn the Mighty dies 1794 Pentland Skerries lighthouses Scar boat burial revealed by storms ing people of today. been a revolution in itself. grants, with the result that the 1066 William - a French Viking takes 1798 Highland Park distillery established Ro-ro services to North Isles The Roman invasion of England c.1800 Ba’ game takes present form 1992 St Ola IV enters service population decline has now 1098 Magnus Barelegs expedition 1809 First Kirkwall pier built Orkney Ferries fully ro-ro to Isles After the end of the last Ice Britain in AD43 rippled as far reversed. The generation of 1117 Murder of Magnus 1813 Martello Towers started 1995 50 th anniversary of Barriers Age, about 13,000 years ago, as Orkney. The islands were power from the wind, waves 1137 Foundation of St Magnus Cathedral Last Great Auk killed on Papay 1997 First Atlantic oil reaches Flotta Mesolithic nomadic hunters starting to experience more and tides is the latest in this 1151 Magnus relics transferred to Cathedral 1814 Stone of Odin destroyed 1999 Pickaquoy Centre opens arrived in Scotland. By outside influence, Pictish, Earl Rognvald goes to Holy Land 1830 Collapse of Kelp Boom series of developments. 2001 Pentland Ferries established 4000BC, Neolithic farmers Roman, Norse, Christian, 1152 Maeshowe runes 1832 North Ronaldsay dyke built 2002 NorthLink takes over 1171 Sweyn Asleifson killed at Dublin First steamship visits Kirkwall New pier at Hatston were well settled in Orkney. Scots and English. Orkney now has a very diverse Velocity 1188 Bjarni Kolbeinson bishop 1833 PS starts regular 2003 EMEC established For over 1,500 years their cul - economy, mostly still based on 1194 Battle of Florvag service to Kirkwall 2004 Stromness & Kirkwall mari nas ture flourished, leaving the vil - Beginning in the 8 th century 1231 Last Norse Earl dies 1838 Kirkwall Gas Company formed ILS at Kirkwall Airport its natural assets, but increas - (John Harraldson) 1847 Balfour Castle built New Kirkwall Library lages, chambered cairns, stone the Scandinavians began to ingly depending on the ability 1263 Battle of Largs, King Haakon dies 1850 Skara Brae revealed after storm Ness of Brodgar first trenches circles and artefacts which we appear, probably not in huge of the Orcadians to adapt to 1266 Treaty of Perth 1855 Steamer Stromness to Scrabster 2005 3rd edition of Orkney Guide Book can see today. They are among numbers at first. Large scale today’s changing world, just as 1290 Margaret, Maid of Norway, dies 1857 Orkney Roads act 2009 MV Pentalina enters service 1300 Dutch already fishing Herring 1858 Bridge at Ayre Mills closes the most spectacular migration took place during they have for at least the last Westray Wife found at Noltland th 1379 Earl Henry Sinclair I off Oyce, Skaill hoard found 2011 4 th edition of Orkney Guide Book Neolithic monuments in the 9 century, followed by the 6,000 years. 1380 Kirkwall Castle rebuilt 1859 First Orcadia steamship for 2012 New Kirkwall Grammar School Europe. "Golden Age of the Vikings ". 70 71 THE MESOLITHIC AGE - FIRST HUMAN ARRIVALS HISTORY & A RCHAEOLOGY e c i f The huge weight of the ice belongings and to go fishing in f O c depressed the land, which rose deep water. Most importantly i h p a after the glaciers had melted, a all the materials needed for r g o r process called isostatic their construction had to be d y H rebound. Where the glacia - easily obtained locally. K tion was thin, or non-existent U the effect was for the land to Microliths Most evidence sink, a process which is still from Orkney of these happening in Orkney today. Mesolithic people is in the The result is that here sea form of small stone objects level is several metres higher that have been found, particu - than it was 10,000 years ago.