Orkney History. Entire History, Historical Sites, Historical Events, People and Tradition. The earliest written reference to Orkney is by the Greek explorer, Pytheas, from Marseilles, who may have circumnavigated Orkney about the year 325 BC, and claimed to have sighted the edge of the world, or Ultima Thule. He was probably seeing Foula, or another part of Shetland to the North. Claudius' fleet is said to have formed a treaty with the Orcadians in AD 43, and Tacitus mentions that a Roman fleet subdued Orkney after the battle of Mons Graupius in AD 83. These references are interesting, but probably not very reliable. Orkney is referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Irish Annals and by various writers such as Adomnan, but it is not until the Norse sagas, written in the 12th century, that we find more recent history. These sagas were written sometime after the events so colourfully described, and thus may be of dubious historical accuracy in parts, but nevertheless they give a vivid and graphic account of the Norse age. Being so fertile, and so near to Norway, Orkney was an obvious base for Viking expansion, particularly in a time when the latest technology was sea transport in Viking longships.
