I have been a re-enactor for about 8 or 9 years now. I remember the day I first met a Viking group at The Abbey Medieval Festival. I sat there for 2 hours talking to them. I felt like I had "come home". Since then I have been in a few groups but they were all a fair distance from my home and I the journey down to meetings was not always possible.
So, a couple of years ago a friend and I decided to start our own group. We are both interested in the Celtic Culture as well as Vikings so we agreed to portray Vikings in Scotland. We did some research and settled on Galloway Bay however, after some time, we realised that there was not a lot of evidence remaining of Viking settlements in that area. So, we went on the search again and found Brough of Birsay, a small island off mainland Orkney. This tiny island has artifacts dating from the fifth century AD, perhaps Christian missionaries, the seventh century - when it was a Pictish stronghold and the night century when it was taken over and built over by the Norse.
The parish of Birsay takes its name from the Brough, which in Old Norse was calledByrgisey - the fort island. Its "modern" name reflects these defensive aspects, with the term brough used in Orkney to refer to naturally defensive headlands.
Some of my favourite re-enactment photos from over the years ...
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