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Just before late morning on 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter raised a secret flag hoist aboard his flagship Emden. One by one, the same coded signal climbed the masts of the other 73 German vessels all anchored around Scapa Flow. What happened next has become a day of Orkney legend.

On Captain Walden’s 1772 map it is labelled “Stone of Sacrifice”, reflecting the speculative interpretations of 18th-century antiquarians rather than any firm evidence.

For seven years, Christian I ruled all three Scandinavian crowns. Through his kingship of Norway, that rule also extended to Orkney and Shetland — distant, but strategically important parts of the Norwegian realm. That power did not last. In 1464, Swedish nobles rebelled and deposed Christian as king of Sweden. From that point on, his kingdom began to shrink. Denmark and Norway remained under his control, but the loss of Sweden weakened his position and placed severe strain o

There are a lot of details that make Unstan Chambered Cairn interesting. But what I want to show you today is a mystery no bigger than the size of my hand. Unstan was opened in 1884 by Robert Clouston. Inside, he found a large quantity of human remains, along with animal bones, spread through the chambers. Like other Neolithic cairns in Orkney, this wasn’t a single burial. The tomb was reused, with bones placed, moved, and returned over time. The site is also important becaus