Two of us enter

on hands and knees

through close dark passage

to round chamber of stone

 ****

thin light filters from

circular hole above

where layered rocks

draw up and lean in

 ****

fingers stretch out

to touch each side

the green dampness

of ancient walls

 ****

four low small rooms

from the centre lead out

in cardinal directions,

we pray to each:

 ****

fire, air, earth, water

then sound begins

in my throat

with my breath

 ****

seeping out from the stones

up through my body

resonating vibrations

of some other voice

**** 

strong and deep

a masculine intonation of

powerful prayer from

old earth rituals

**** 

then, slowly, softly

female song rises

harmonic waves

possess this space

 ****

body and rock

mind and place

resound as one,

in the voice

 ****

time falls away

I return to myself

and the quiet

and the now

and you.

***** 

Wendy Alford      May 2019

Vinquoy photo credit: Wendy Alford

In their book ‘What The Architecture Tells Us’, Marianne Pollich and Elisabeth Holder have a chapter about Vinquoy. https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/08/20/what-the-architecture-tells-us/

Maybe Vinquoy will be included in the North Isles Landscape Partnership Schemes (NILPS) Neolithic Landscape of the Dead project ……https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/01/11/tombs-of-the-isles-community-archaeology-project-for-orkneys-north-isles/

And for more information, see the ever reliable Canmore ……  https://canmore.org.uk/site/3183/eday-vinquoy-hill

By Bernie Bell