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PapaWestry-0612

We traveled by car ferry to the island of Westray and then by passenger-only ferry to the small island of Papa Westray. It is a small enough island that we walked around two-thirds of the island and made it back for the last ferry. These 6000-year-old dwellings, known as the Knap of Howar, are older than those at Skara Brae. These are long buildings, with one or two divider walls separating the rooms. I find it impressive that the long outer walls are not straight, because the weight of the sand would risk cave in, but instead are concave for added strength against the external pressure of the sand. Our ancient ancestors understood quite a few laws of physics.