Category: Around the Ness
Previously we saw that the Dyke of Sean was perhaps once one of three — or possibly four — walls that ran the width of the Ness of Brodgar in the Neolithic. Did these define specific areas – dividing the isthmus into distinct segments of “graded” space – and controlled movement and visibility through them?
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The Dyke of Sean, a suspected prehistoric earthwork near the Ring of Brodgar, fascinates visitors with its monumental size. It measures up to seven metres wide and a metre high, spanning 500 meters between the Stenness and Harray lochs. Despite unclear dating, masonry suggests a Neolithic origin.
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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…
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One of Orkney's most imposing standing stones, the Watchstone dominates the south-eastern end of the Brig o’ Brodgar – the place where the Harray and Stenness lochs meet.
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The Ness of Brodgar sits at the centre of a massive natural "cauldron" formed by the hills of the surrounding landscape. Today, it is accentuated on either side by the freshwater Loch of Harray and the saltwater Loch of Stenness - but that was not always the case.
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The Standing Stones of Stenness (1906).
There’s nothing like finally getting to the bottom of an irksome puzzle. In this case, the puzzle related to an old photograph of the…
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The six-metre-long section of walling uncovered during work to insert a passing place opposite the site entrance in 2013. (📷 ORCA)
The location of the 2013 trench in relation to…
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Evidence for earlier excavations at the Ness - probably in the early 1880s - has come to light in a handwritten note from the papers, manuscripts and notebooks kept by James Walls Cursiter.
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