From April 14 to April 20, Kirkwall hosted the field
school of The Orkney Viking Heritage Project. Eight current (and three former)
members of the ASNC Department travelled to Orkney together with fellow students and
colleagues from the universities of the Highlands and Islands, Oxford,
Nottingham, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, York and Kings College London. The Orkney Viking Heritage Project is an
AHRC-funded interdisciplinary training programme. It brings together scholars
and heritage professionals to explore the literature, history and material
culture of Viking Orkney and provide hands-on experience of a heritage
landscape.
[photo
credit: Nicola Lugosch]
During the course of the week, we saw
viking grafitti on neolithic monuments at the Ring of Brodgar and the
spectacular burial chamber of Maeshowe, and visited the ruin of St Magnus Kirk
on the small island of Egilsay where Earl Magnús
was killed, along with the imposing St Magnus Cathedral, which St Rögnvaldr
established on the Mainland.
[St Magnus Kirk, photo credit: Bernadette McCooey]
Through presentations, discussions and
excursions, we reconsidered medieval texts and artefacts in situ in order to contextualise our understanding of the past within
the reality of the physical landscape. With the help of local academics,
heritage professionals and Orkney residents, we also explored how this past,
and modern perceptions of it, continue to inform the way current islanders
define and relate to the landscape around them.
For more information on the project,
including our blog, photos, podcasts and other resources, see the Orkney Project website. You can also find information about our
travelling exhibition, which made its first stop at the Midlands Viking Symposium at the University of Nottingham on April 27.
