Archaeology around the Ness of Brodgar

Little Barnhouse Mound. Sigurd Towrie

The ‘Little Barnhouse’ mound

Just outside Stenness village, and opposite the Standing Stones Hotel, is a large oval mound. The tumulus was given scheduled monument status in 2002 and assigned the name “Little Barnhouse” …
South-eastern entrance to the Ring of Brodgar. (Sigurd Towrie)

The Ring of Brodgar

With a diameter of 103.6m (340ft), the Ring of Brodgar is the larger of the two stone circles in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site and one of the biggest in the British …
The Ring of Brodgar. (Sigurd Towrie)

Howastedgarth – the old name for the Ring of Brodgar?

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 by Marwick …
Unstan Stalled Cairn

Unstan stalled cairn, Stenness

In the late 19th century, the Knowe of Onston was opened and found to contain the remains of a Neolithic stalled cairn …

The Stones of Stenness

The second stone circle in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage site is now most commonly known as the Stones of Stenness …
Winter snow. (Sigurd Towrie)

Destruction and reconstruction at the Stones of Stenness

In December 1814, disaster struck the Stones of Stenness when a tenant farmer took it upon himself to obliterate them …
Maeshowe interior. (Jim Richardson)

Maeshowe

Probably the best-known Neolithic chambered cairn in Orkney, Maeshowe stands less than a mile to the east of the Ness of Brodgar complex …

A standing stone at Maeshowe and the structure that lies beneath

The solstice, an earlier building and standing stone and Norse runes …
Maeshowe (Sigurd Towrie)

Maeshowe and the winter solstice

With its south-westerly facing entrance, Maeshowe’s best known attribute is its orientation towards the setting sun around midwinter …
Hearth in Maeshowe featured image

A hearth in Maeshowe?

Back in 2016, a nineteenth century sketch had us pondering whether there might be more to Maeshowe than we see today …