A henge at Staneyhill in Harray?
By Sigurd Towrie
Creating these posts involves many hours of archive digging to uncover as much information as possible about each site. While this usually leads to an overwhelming volume of material, this particular case was quite the opposite.
Even so, I couldn’t overlook this site, which is nestled within a rich, but understudied, prehistoric landscape that has been eclipsed by the Stenness monuments at the opposite side of the Harray loch.
But rest assured, the quest continues…
Some 250 metres to the east of the Staneyhill stone and a suspected Neolithic quarry site, is a large, ditch-and-bank enclosure, bisected by a modern road.
With an approximate diameter of 60 metres, the Staneyhill enclosure is larger than the Stones of Stenness and Ring of Bookan but slightly smaller than the Overbigging example, 2.5 miles to the south-south-west.
Unlike Overbigging, however, the Staneyhill enclosure is clearly visible. It is defined by an outer ditch, and two banks – one inside the ditch, the second, which is intermittent, outside. The three-metre-wide inner bank encloses an oval area measuring c.45 by 40 metres.
The width of the surviving ditch varies from 1.5-13 metres, while the sections of the outer bank are between two and five metres wide.
Today there is no visible entrance, but if one existed it may have been in the south- or north-western quadrants and disturbed/covered by the construction of the road cutting through the enclosure’s western side.
Its appearance inevitably led to its classification as a henge and with it the notion it dated to the Neolithic. But, as we saw with the Overbigging enclosure, things are rarely that simple and the Staneyhill site may well have its origins in the Bronze or Iron Ages.
There is no doubt that the Staneyhill “henge” was once a visually impressive site. Although the ditch we see today has undoubtedly suffered from erosion and infilling, in places it is wider than the one surrounding the Ring of Brodgar.
Unfortunately, the site has not been excavated so the assumption it represents a Neolithic henge was based solely on its appearance.
Although it ticks all the boxes required for a henge, the double banks mean it fits none of the categories formulated in the early 20th century. But we don’t need to worry about that…
We do, however, have to be very careful assigning a Neolithic date to the monument based on its classification as a henge. Many sites were enclosed throughout prehistory. The outer bank, for example, may have been added some time after the inner bank and ditch – perhaps a final act of sealing off the enclosure.
The ditch and inner bank may also post-date whatever, if anything, lay at their centre.
The apparent lack of an entrance mirrors Maeshowe, a few miles along the road. There, it has been suggested that the unbroken ditch and bank/wall was either meant to keep people out or contain something within. While this may be due to the insertion of a modern road, it may also be the result of later prehistoric modifications – a final closure of the interior and whatever it represented.
The Staneyhill enclosure lies within a landscape rich in archaeology but, unfortunately, one that has been little studied. It once contained at least three standing stones, is peppered in unexcavated “tumuli” and known Bronze Age cist burials.
That does suggest a Neolithic/Bronze Age origin for the enclosure but without further evidence we cannot say for sure. Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards, of the UHI Archaeology Institute, have planned the monument, which left Prof Richards leaning towards a Bronze Age date.
I believe the “henge” was also geophysically surveyed in 2009, as part of a UHI Archaeology Institute student’s masters degree. When I track down the results, I’ll come back and update this post.
Despite the wealth of archaeology around the Staneyhill “henge”, it seems to have been completely missed by antiquaries. Although several 19th and early 20th century accounts mention the standing stones and cist burials in the vicinity, I have yet to find one that mentions the huge enclosure.
Equally, any material found during the work to insert the modern road does not seem to have been recorded.
Another to add to the “needs further investigation” list…
