Birsay Whalebone
The Birsay Whalebone is an old with yellow lichen -covered whalebone sculpture that looks like a owl looks in flight. It stands at Birsay on the north coast of Mainland , the main island of Orkney in Scotland .
Around 1876 a dead right whale was washed up on the beach, below where the sculpture has stood since the 1880s. It consists of part of the jawbone. The top half is the back of the skull. The whalebone sculpture may have been a landmark. Skiba Geo's Rock Cairn has a similar function. Using whalebone for practical or decorative purposes was a common practice on Orkney.
Other parts of the dead whale were used to cover piles of peat. One swivel was used as a milking stool, another as a kitchen chair. The whalebone arch at the “Kirbuster Farm Museum” consisting of two ribs and a vertebra is said to come from the same whale. At Binscarth in Finstown there used to be an archway called the Whale Bone Gate, which was made from the massive jawbones of another whale.
The post broke in a storm in 2008. It was repaired thanks to the work of Birsay Heritage Trust. The hollow jawbone was reinforced by an inserted metal rod and a concrete base was built.
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Coordinates: 59 ° 8 ′ 17.8 " N , 3 ° 18 ′ 46.7" W.