The Spring Equinox & a Neolithic Temple (Stanydale, Shetland)

Today I stepped back in time 4,000 years to the heart of Neolithic Shetland, to that moment as dawn arrives and the world stops, where just for a moment everything falls silent. The birds stop singing, the sheep grow quiet, the wind lulls and life is suspended while that first ray of sunlight makes contact with the cold earth as it awakens from winter once more.

March brings with it an urgency, an expectation of spring. I feel it coursing through my body like a raw energy which needs to be expended – somewhere, anywhere. The mornings are easier, I feel lighter and bursting with an all-consuming desire to get out and explore. The light is returning – a welcome sight after a long winter at 60 degrees north and, like me, the earth is awakening from its winter slumber.

Along with the hopeful spring bulbs and lambs we welcome the equinox and, today, there’s a full moon; the third and final supermoon of 2019.

The equinox is quite simply that time when the day and night are of equal length; there’s a balance in these days, but also a sense of polarisation. It feels as if we are hanging on a pendulum, in free-fall, suspended as the world is about to be set into motion; like a rollercoaster at that point before the drop. The days and nights are equal; but the tides give their most extreme versions of themselves; licking the tops of piers at their height and, as they recede, revealing all kinds of mysteries from the murky depths below.

The whole world appears magnified as these extremes of nature are brought into sharp focus under the weight of our expectation of spring.

This year I chose to welcome the spring. I wanted to experience it and give thanks for its return.

I chose the Neolithic temple at Stanydale to view the equinox (or vernal) sunrise (If you are a regular reader of my blog then you may remember that I spent the winter solstice here too. You can read about that here). Stanydale is believed to have symbolic meaning, and as the sun lifts its head above the eastern horizon, it rises in almost perfect alignment with the temple’s narrow doorway and two carefully placed standing stones set a short distance from the door.

I wanted to see this wonder of nature and our ancestors for myself. I wanted to soak in the first rays of spring sunshine,  to feel them kiss my cheeks and to smell the earthy dew rise from the cold moor, and witness this incredible prehistoric alignment of man, stone and sun.

Our ancestors were carefully tuned into the cycles of the earth and land, carefully labouring, tilling and ploughing. Sowing the seeds and watching them grow. One eye skyward watching the weather, the other embedded in the soil willing growth. Hands ingrained with dirt. Sweat exchanged for growth. Just as our bodies, particularly us women,  are governed by cycles, so too is the earth and the way we interact with it. Farmers are still tuned into this cyclical way of life but, for the vast majority of us, it bears little relevance to our day-to-day lives which are governed by the demands of 9-5 jobs – we can thank the Industrial Revolution for that one.

Setting the alarm for 4.45am on a cold March morning might be a bit mad – and a few questioned my sanity – but I decided to take the time to step-off the merry-go-round and walk into the past with my eyes and senses open to the world around me. I wanted to stand – just for a moment –  in the land of our ancestors 4,000 years ago. I wanted to hear the bird call in that suspended moment of quiet as the dawn meets the day.

Approaching the parking place for Stanydale at 5.30am the sky was still dark, except for a dim glow in the eastern sky. The drive west wasn’t looking promising for the mind-dazzling sunrise that I craved, with a squally shower reducing visibility to next to nothing. But, making the ascent up to the mysterious temple of our Neolithic fathers, and with boots sucking into the mossy bog, the clouds lifted and the sky cleared.

And as the magical moment approached and my senses deepened, I wondered what they were thinking – those hands that laid the stones around me. What filled their thoughts as they laid each stone in place? What did their lives look like? Did they wonder about the past too? Or even the future?

As I stood there awaiting the light, in the centre of that neolithic temple, and as the first rays flexed their golden arms above the hill, throwing light onto the cold earth that surrounded me I was mesmerised. For now – where 15 minutes earlier it had been dark and unforgiving, allowing shadows to play in the corner of my eyes, amplifying my senses – it became dappled in that first soft light of fairy tales, tracing through my veins like a drug. And in a moment of purity, just as the earth gives way to the sea – the sun broke through the door, and darkness gave way to light – penetrating the temple like a sword.

As I went through the door, sun dazzled my eyes that were still tuned to the dark – my senses felt sharper. I made my way, feeling, around the temple. Using my hands to trace its shape, its curves, its alignments; touching every stone as I made my way around this megalithic marvel. Every feature accentuated. The grasses and floss danced golden and bright in the early morning, each blade standing tall and proud against the burning orange sky above me. The lichen that punctuated every stone shone in colours and patterns I had never seen before. Maybe it was the low morning light, or maybe I had simply opened my eyes to the world. Yet there was something in that morning. Something in even the call of the birds that was different; the whaaps (curlews) expectant calls more piercing, the shalder’s (oystercatchers) tone more urgent.

And as I drove back to Lerwick in the rush hour traffic, I felt as if I had been violently thrust forward 4,000 years into a surreal parallel universe. The cars and the bustle of this spring morning were so far removed from where I had come from. As I rejoined the world and followed the road back to Lerwick – back to my time –  where I had to put bairns to school, empty the dishwasher and get to work. A cruise liner was expected; how very 21st-century.

And as quickly as I had stepped out, I was brought back thousands of year with a jolt – the eight o’clock news reporting on more Brexit and more bombings.

To write about the experience and how it felt to be stood there as the dawn met the day has been harder than I imagined – I think because the experience moved me in a way I hadn’t imagined possible. Something in that moment of calm reflection, as the sun rose, resonated deep inside me like a burning fire. I felt like the only person alive in that moment.

How do you put that into words? How do you describe the indescribable? How do you give thought and feeling to something that is so much greater than you are? How can I give words to the noise of the wind passing overhead, as the chamber of the temple remained still, or how the earth smelled as the sun warmed it, how its earthy tones rose like nectar around me. All I know is that I felt motionless – caught in the tides of time – somewhere between the here-and-now and the Neolithic.

Who am I to say why those stones were placed in alignment to meet the sun of the spring equinox. Who am I to paint that picture? That picture of sunrises, and low morning sunlight kissing the walls of the temple’s golden passage. Of lichen, floss, birds and growth. I feel humbled to have borne witness to this, as those walls accepted the light and welcomed the spring.  I am just one of many who have stood in that spot and soaked in the dawn of four-millennia, while the passage of time marches on regardless. One day my life will be history and I too will be a 4,000-year-old mystery.

(To read more about Stanydale from an archaeological perspective check out this helpful and informative essay by Dr Esther Renwick from Archaeology Shetlandhere.)

With love,