The advantages of settling permanently in Orkney were many - not least the fertile farmlands so scarce along the Norwegian fjords. This sequence of raiding followed by settlement seems to have taken place in the course of two or three generations of Vikings. Precise dating is very difficult - the Norse sagas were written four hundred years after the event and are literary chronicles, not first-hand reports.

Archaeological evidence shows that there were pagan Viking burials and permanent settlements in the 9th century but cannot be more precise. Work continues to identify and date Norse settlements from a study of settlement sites (e.g. Tuquoy in Westray and Jarlshof in Shetland), and from graves and deposited hoards of silver.

The language of the original inhabitants, probably part Pictish and part Celtic, was displaced and a language descended from Old Norse was still being spoken in Shetland in the 19th century. Place names, some of the Orcadian dialect, and some family names, to this day come from Old Norse.

By the end of the 9th century, Orkney was the power-centre of a powerful Norse earldom. But Pictish was not totally erased. Their distinctive bone combs and pins have been found in excavations of Viking settlements, and there is growing evidence that their land-management system was respected and taken over by the Viking over-lords.

The effect of inter-marriage between Pict and Viking, developed alliances and strengthened links between the indigenous people and the Scandinavian invaders. Large and productive farms were established.

Orkney and Shetland were an essential part of an outreach which saw major settlements grow as far away as York and Dublin. En route, the Vikings settled in the Western Isles of Scotland, areas of the mainland especially Caithness and Sutherland, and parts of Galloway and Argyll. Beyond Orkney, the western seaway led through the Scottish islands to the rich monasteries around the Irish Sea. Lindisfarne was attacked by the Danes in 793, Iona was pillaged in 795 and regularly thereafter, as were monasteries in Ireland. The development in the 7th century of the Viking longships and merchant ships or ‘knorr’ had made this expansion possible. With its flexible hull and its keel and sail, the Viking longship was far superior to ships and boats used by other peoples at the time. Neither type needed a harbour, but could land on beaches or river banks anywhere. On board the ship each man had a ships' chest where he had his belongings. When they had to row, the chest was used to sit on while rowing.

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