Orkney Day 5 - Deerness — Aimee Labourne

Top: A page of studies about Orkney's runes. Below: Sketching the wall of a WWI magazine, covered in layers of graffiti.

Yesterday was a study day for a course I'm enrolled on. However a day in was also a good chance to gather together some sketches from over the last few days.

I've found the many examples of runes found in Orkney very interesting. Examples are found inscribed in walls as graffiti, carved on religious stones, or on amulets for magic and protection. Runes were the choice of written language in the Norse world. This was an evolving language however, with different kinds of runes found across Orkney, and many examples also written in encrypted/cipher runes. This makes them difficult to understand, but also gives a sense of the individuality of the people who left their messages. Graffiti and the need to leave a mark (especially perhaps when confronted with something that is unknown or unnerving) is something age-old and continues in the war-ruins I've visited so far. Inscriptions from the past reach across the centuries, and we experience a strange sense of time when we encounter them - literally here in the case of a Norse Stave Calendar, sketched at Kirkwall Museum. With the adoption of the Scots calendar in 1312, this way of marking time went out of use, and it now seems unimaginable to think there was ever a different way of counting months and seasons. In war ruins with layers of graffiti, there are many personal signatures and marks - names and meanings that get lost over time, but build up like strata on the decaying walls.

In the evening, a search for the remnants of Deerness Coastal Battery was not very successful! This site on the mainland of Orkney defended Deer Sound. Now all that is visible amongst grasses and wildflowers in full bloom were a few low concrete structures. With the surrounding tranquil rural beauty, it's hard to imagine that the conflict was once such a strong presence in Orkney.