The Stones of Stenness – part two
“Each of the remaining pillars is about 18 feet above ground: one was lately thrown down, but has not been broken; three were, in the month of December 1814, torn… Read more
Category: Around the Ness
The Stones of Stenness
At Stennis, where the Loch is narrowest, in the midle, having a Causey of stons over it for a bridge, there is, at the South end of the bridge, a… Read more
The Ring of Bookan
“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… Read more
Howastedgarth – the old name for the Ring of Brodgar?
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… Read more
The Ring of Brodgar
“[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… Read more
Unstan Stalled 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… Read more
The ‘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… Read more
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… Read more
A natural cursus? Water, walls and walking the Ness of Brodgar
“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… Read more
The Dyke of Sean – a third monumental wall crossing the Ness
Visitors to the Ness of Brodgar 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… Read more
Agents of transformation – the role of chambered cairns in Neolithic Orkney
The presence of two main 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… Read more
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”… Read more
Ness flanked by lochs in prehistory? Surveys suggest otherwise
By Sigurd Towrie
Standing on the Ness of Brodgar, you can see why the peninsula was chosen to site some of the best-known ceremonial monuments of the Orcadian Neolithic.
The… Read more
2013 road work revealed structure beyond the ‘Great Wall’
Visitors to the Ness of Brodgar site are always staggered to learn that we have excavated less than ten per cent of the complex.
The sheer scale of the Neolithic… Read more
