Words in Hand

Edinburgh BSL Research Project

Standing stones – Clark

Tags: Clark, Orkney, anecdote

... so anyway we hurried off to Callanish and I had to be patient, remember I still had a hangover! Anyway we arrived at Callanish and I got out and looked, and I said 'What's this about?' there was nothing there just standing stones, standing stones! stones! What are they about? There they were, so I looked and then I wondered about it and I read a plaque that was going to explain what it was about. So I read it and I pondered over it and it said it was over 4,000 years old. Over 4,000 years old! Really old! And then it said, it's best if you view it as if you're a bird, that's right. Okay, so then I looked, and I realised what it was about, it was in the shape of a cross. Ah, the Standing Stones we're just like a cross. Then I realised that must have been what it was about that long time ago.

So the deaf we're talking 'The cross, that's related to Jesus, something related to Jesus, so that's right, it's Jesus'. So I just walking away and I said 'No! That's impossible 4,000 years ago? Jesus wasn't there four thousand years ago, he was there 2000 years ago. How was it 4000 years ago?' A cross, how? It meant the cross came before Jesus! I couldn't think of it. I'd always related a cross to Jesus, but no, it was before that. So I was amazed and I kept asking people. But then a social worker, who was with us as an interpreter, said it really belongs to the Druids. Ahh, the Druids. I understand, yes. I've heard about the Celts emigrating into Scotland. That's right, this is the same as Stonehenge and the stones there, it's related to the ones at Callanish. But I was suspicious, no! I think it's related to space, maybe an alien in the past, it landed, who knows?!



Acknowledgements

This digitisation project was made possible through funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.