Brough of Birsay

The Brough of Birsay is a tidal island north-west of Birsay. The remains of an old settlement exist on the Brough, which was first inhabited by Picts and then by Vikings from the 9th to 12th centuries AD. The extensive remains of an excavated Norse settlement and church overlay the earlier Pictish settlement.

Here the excavators found the symbol stone of the Brough of Birsay, now in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Orkney was undoubtedly part of the Pictish kingdom, but it had its own ruler. Adomnan of Iona records in "The Life of Columba" that during his visit to the court of the Pictish king Brude mac Maelchon (Bridei I, c. 555-587), he asked the contemporary ruler of Orkney to ensure the safety of his missionaries.

According to the Orkneyinga saga, Birsay, possibly on the Brough, was the first earl's seat of Orkney, which became part of Norway around 880 AD.