It was lockout rather than lockdown at Garrywhin
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
DAN MACKAY reflects on hard lives of our Neolithic ancestors against the backdrop of our present-day global emergency
Social distancing is not new. Our Neolithic ancestors had, by necessity, long since mastered the method.
If we look around for their clues we can still see the abundant remains of those hardy forefathers who lived a tough existence thousands of years ago on this less than fertile northern landscape.
I’m especially thinking about the hill fort at Garrywhin, near Ulbster. In those days it was not so much lockdown as lockout. I’ve no doubt they had a wide range of illnesses to cope with as well; I’ve read that life expectancy was low and infant mortality high. And they also had to deal with the threat of occasional marauders who doubtless wanted their livestock and maybe even their women – and anything else they fancied to plunder.
Not for our ancient kinsfolk two-metre social distancing but more a hurried scramble to the safer confines of their walled hill fort. There, at least for a while, they could hold off the imminent threat to their vulnerable community.
They would have been surrounded by terrorising warriors who were after everything they’d got. And their defences would have been simply the lobbing of stones at anyone who tried to break through.
One imagines that sometimes they held out successfully atop their mound, but perhaps on other occasions their defences were breached and survival was more a case of flight than fight.
Some social commentators are predicting the onset of a mental health crisis as a direct consequence of the coronavirus lockdown. Some charities, disturbingly, have already recorded a 120 per cent increase in calls to domestic abuse helplines. It seems we do not take kindly to being besieged at home. We’ve become so used to our freedoms that when they become restricted we take ill out to the loss of liberty.
And, of course, the enemy today is unseen yet all pervasive. It is a sinister enemy and every bit as hostile to our very existence. There has been much talk about "flattening the curve" of the number of cases. Beyond that there is some hope that plans will be announced to reveal how, bit by bit, we can emerge safely and strive for some sense of normality.
However, one leading expert on the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), Sir Jeremy Farrar, says that Britain could be hit harder than any other European country, worse even than Italy and Spain which have both incurred dreadful tolls.
While our ancient kinsfolk could literally take to the hills, our very survival – our “only true exit strategy”, according to the experts including Sir Jeremy – lies in the development of new treatments and vaccines.
He also said, speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, it was “probably inevitable” that there would be future waves of coronavirus across Britain without a vaccine in place.
Truly these are unprecedented times.
It seems every generation at war (our coronavirus fight has been likened to a global conflict) had its own challenges. During World War II the home front had to deal with aerial bombardment, blackouts, air-raid shelters, rationing and travel restrictions. Today our immediate challenge is to ensure that frontline staff have the correct personal protective equipment and the NHS is not swamped by patients it does not have the capacity to treat.
At a personal level, some families have had to cope with the harrowing experience of not being with their loved ones in their final moments – added to which there are strict limitations on the numbers that can attend funerals.
It is a sinister enemy and every bit as hostile to our very existence.
There will be a post-mortem one day to review the UK’s readiness, response and resolve to deal with this crisis. Many believe our public services were disadvantaged by years of austerity. It will be argued that had the lockdown been imposed earlier thousands of lives in the UK could have been saved.
Next to the Garrywhin hill fort is the Cairn o’ Get burial chamber. Previous excavations unearthed adult skeletons, pottery and flint arrowheads. It seems in those ancient cultures the loss of loved ones was greatly revered.
Our time will come to remember those to whom we could not pay our last respects. But as the Pope said in his Easter message, "darkness and death do not have the last word".
