Around the Ness: The Ring of Bookan
By Sigurd Towrie “The Ring of Bookan, in the same neighbourhood [as the Ring of Brodgar], appears to be a similar platform, but it is enclosed with an earthen vallum, and exhibits abundant traces...
Category: Around the Ness
Around the Ness: Howastedgarth
By Sigurd Towrie We finished last week with George Marwick’s claimed “old name” for the Ring of Brodgar – Howastedgarth. I first stumbled across it in 2012, in a transcription of a talk given...
Around the Ness: The Ring of Brodgar
By Sigurd Towrie “[In Stenness] beside the lake are stones high and broad, in height equal to a spear, and in an equal circle of half a mile.” Jo Ben. Descriptio Insularum Orchadiarum. c1529...
Around the Ness: Unstan Cairn
By Sigurd Towrie In the late 19th century, a grassy mound on a headland jutting into the Stenness loch attracted the attention of one of the many antiquarians with their sights on Orkney’s suspected...
Around the Ness: ‘Little Barnhouse’ mound
By Sigurd Towrie Most visitors to the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site will be familiar with Maeshowe. Few, however, will know that what appears to be an equally large chambered cairn stands...
Around the Ness: the Comet Stone
“The old track now passes by a small, solitary standing stone slab, encircled in green for some distance around its base and finally merging again into heather.” George Marwick. The Standing Stones of Stenness...
A natural cursus? Water, walls and walking the Ness
“Seven thousand years ago, Mesolithic hunter gatherers walked the long ridge of land in the heart of Orkney, known today as the Ness of Brodgar. Later, Neolithic farmers chose that land to erect massive...
The Dyke of Sean – a third monumental wall crossing the Ness
Visitors to the excavation are always fascinated by the two monumental walls flanking the Ness of Brodgar complex. The sight of the beautiful stonework of the four-metre (13ft) thick section of the “Great Wall...
Agents of transformation – the role of chambered cairns in Neolithic Orkney
The presence of two styles of Neolithic chambered cairn in Orkney has led to years of debate on their dates, use and development. Here, Sigurd looks at current thinking on Orkney’s cairns, particularly in...
Around the Ness: The Watchstone
“When on the way to the Bridge of Brogar, attention is at once arrested by a singly giant monolith … standing erect, like a giant sentinel, called the Watch Stone” James Macbeath. The Orkneys...