Category: Around the Ness

Monday, October 19, 2020

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. Read more

South-eastern entrance to the Ring of Brodgar. (Sigurd Towrie)

Around the Ness / Ring of Brodgar

Monday, October 12, 2020

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 Isles. Read more

Around the Ness / Chambered Cairns

Monday, September 28, 2020

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”. Read more

Comet Stone and Ring of Brodgar. 2000. (Sigurd Towrie)

Around the Ness / Standing Stones

Monday, September 21, 2020

The Comet Stone

On low ground 140 metres (153 yards) east of the Ring of Brodgar is the monolith now commonly known as the Comet Stone. Read more

Around the Ness / Ring of Brodgar / Standing Stones / Stones of Stenness

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

A natural cursus? Water, walls and walking 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? Read more

Around the Ness / Ring of Brodgar

Monday, June 22, 2020

The Dyke of Sean – a third monumental wall crossing the Ness

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. Read more

Around the Ness / Chambered Cairns

Monday, June 15, 2020

Agents of transformation – 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 and the Brig o' Brodgar (Jim Richardson)

Around the Ness / Standing Stones / Stones of Stenness

Monday, May 25, 2020

The Watchstone

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. Read more

The Ness of Brodgar today, flanked by the Lochs of Stenness (left) and Harray (right). (Scott Pike)

Around the Ness

Monday, May 18, 2020

Ness flanked by lochs in prehistory? Surveys suggest otherwise

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. Read more

Around the Ness / Standing Stones / Stones of Stenness

Friday, May 8, 2020

Solved! The perplexing puzzle of the Stones of Stenness ‘building’

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 Stones… Read more

Around the Ness

Monday, May 4, 2020

Roadwork in 2013 revealed structure beyond the ‘Great Wall’

A section of 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… Read more

Around the Ness

Friday, December 7, 2018

Antiquarian delvings on the Ness

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. Read more