The Stones of Stenness

Orkney Islands, north of Scotland: Megalith remains of Maeshowe.

From Barnhouse Stone, go northwest just about 700 meters along the B 9055 road to the Stones of Stenness at HY 307 125. Some of the standing stones are visible in front of the loch at far left in the above picture.

Stenness is pronounced "Stain-Is", from the Old Norse for stone headland.

It's the remains of a henge, a megalithic circle with a ditch and bank around a circle of large stones.

Six large megaliths remain, the largest standing six meters above ground.

Originally there were twelve stones in an ellipse.

The major axis of the ellipse was about 32 meters across.

A ditch surrounded the the stone circle. The ditch was 44 meters in diameter, about 2 meters deep and 7 meters wide. An earth bank was then outside the ditch.

The Stones of Stenness are extremely thin in comparison to their width and height.

They are only very approximately rectangular, most have an angled top edge.

One, visible across the circle here, has a bent shape like a sideways "V".

There's a large stone "hearth" near the center. Bones of cattle, sheep, wolves and dogs were found in the ditch forming the outer perimeter of the henge. This suggest some function of ritual sacrifice and feasting.

This henge complex was constructed around 3100 BC, making it one of the oldest anywhere in Britain.

Compare this to Stonehenge, where the circular earthern henge was built around 3100 BC but the iconic standing stones were not erected until around 2200 BC.

The Barnhouse Settlement

The Barnhouse Settlement is adjacent to the Stones of Stenness, you can see that stone circle in the background here.

The Barnhouse Settlement is a cluster of at least fifteen buildings on the shore of Loch Harray, occupied from 3200 to 2950 BC. The ditch and bank around the Stones of Stenness had a single opening in the direction of the settlement.

Either the Stones of Stenness formed the ritual center for this community, or the settlement existed to operate the ritual center.

The homes were larger than those at Skara Brae, several kilometers to the northwest on the western coast of Mainland, but they had common design elements.

Each house had a central stone hearth, recessed bed boxes formed by stone panels, and stone "dressers" or storage cabinets. Grooved ware pottery common to that period was also discovered here.

The structures of the Barnhouse Settlement were free-standing, not buried in a midden heap like those at Skara Brae.

One of the buildings is larger, with an entrance facing northwest and aligned so the midsummer sunset shines along its entrance passageway.

Neolithic Orkney

Scotland and Orkney

People ascending Ben Nevis near Fort William in Scotland, the highest peak in the Scottish Highlands and in all of Britain.

An ascent of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, overlooking Glen Nevis just outside Fort William.

The Road to the Isles, over 22 miles (37 km) overland across the high Scottish moors of Lochaber from Corrour Station to Fort William.

Crossing a 3-wire bridge while trekking through Glen Nevis and the Water of Nevis.

A trek through Glen Nevis and the Water of Nevis.

The Brealach Walk out of Pitlochry though the Highlands past megaliths.

The Brealach Walk out of Pitlochry though the southern Highlands and past some megaliths.

Neolithic dwellings exposed on the beach at Skara Brae in Orkney.

Skara Brae, a Neolithic village on Orkney.

Neolithic Orkney: Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, the Knowe of Onston.

Neolithic Orkney: Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, and the Knowe of Onston.

Geos and freestanding stone pillars along the sea cliffs of the west coast of Orkney.

West Coast Walk along the sea cliffs of Orkney's Mainland Coast.

Scapa Flow and World War II naval fortifications in Orkney.

Scapa Flow and the Churchill Barriers.

The sousterrain, an underground Pict dwelling in Orkney.

The Sousterrain, an underground Pictish dwelling in Orkney.

Church yard on the Isle of Iona in the Inner Hebrides islands off the coast of Scotland.

The Isle of Iona, and Oban and Mull.

The Grit Boxes of Scotland.

Ordnance Survey map of the peak of Ben Nevis.

Navigating with the UK National Grid system and Ordnance Survey maps.

England

Walking along Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.	Stonehenge, Woodhenge, and Durrington Walls.	Avebury, with its stone circles, Silbury Hill, the West Kennet Long Barrow, the Avenue and numerous tumuli, a much better collection of megaliths and structures than Stonehenge!
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien at Oxford.	Dover's tunnels in the White Cliffs from World War II through the Cold War.	The Swingate Chain Home radar station near Dover.
The World War II glider base near Harwell, south of Oxford.	Bletchley Park, the secret installation where the British broke the German codes during World War II.	The Cabinet War Rooms, Churchill's emergency World War II government center underground in central London.
You could go to Lee Ho Fook's and get a big dish of beef chow mein.		What's the plumbing like?