Orcadian landscapes

STENNESS MAY 17th 2010

A propos holed stones in Stenness the earliest reports are of two sentinel stones along the shore either side of the southern end of the Bridge of Brodgar, of a height on a par with the Stones of Stenness, with one of them holed. The earliest labelling of these is of a "stone of power" (Watch Stone) and a "stone of sacrifice" (the Odin Stone it would seem). Pococke shows the latter as a large diamond-shaped boulder but that is because part of the base is hidden - John Clevely in 1772 depicts the Stone of
Odin on a mound. It looks not unlike an erratic boulder like the Odin's Stone in Shapinsay, similar in having a shore location and a tradition of sacrifice (victims dedicated to him were hung as he hung himself to himself to snatch up the runes) but 14' high !
There are two items relating to the stone. The more familiar of these is that relating to betrothal. First the woman on her knees would plight her troth at (what the we now call) the Stones of Stenness, then the man at (what the we now call) the Ring of Brodgar, then the pair sealed the bargain by holding right hands through the Stone of Odin. Before all this they drank the sacred water of Bigswell [on Midsummer Eve a bonfire was lit above Bigswell]. And at Beltain the ill walked sunwise, deosil, about the well before they too drank the waters. Sick children were bathed in it then were taken for further rites at the Stone of Odin. Treatment for epilepsy and mental complaints was more vigorous, being first plunged in it and then left all night tied to a post [makes me wonder about the stake that marks, or used to, the site of the Kethesgeo standing stone - did it actually pre-date the loss??].
We have a late story of one ailing woman who had to make a pile of smaller stones in order to be able to lay her head in the hole. This seems at odds with the man who remembered looking through it as a boy, which is easier to understand if there were two holed stones to match the description of these coming either five or three foot up. And it would be much easier to make sense of the drawings if the name is not indigenous, so that opinions differed as to which it was. Though all but one show the stone about midway up and next to an edge, it is shown as a doublet and a singleton and with the top edge slanting up or down. Mindst you, only one pic shows it as an actual oval. Unfortunately Lady Stafford's drawing is the exception that shows a hole much lower down and placed halfway across instead of next to an edge - and the stone's top is angle to boot. Either it is the only true depiction or it is the nameless holed stone as located by Pococke. Many authors place the Stone of Odin close to NE of the mound but Thomas' informant places it 150 yards to the north and even Marwick's scaling from what he thinks an accurate plan cannot place it there [though if Pococke had been in error rather than dismiss him entirely he does mention a pillar 50 yards NE of the other cicle] - he gives ~92m N of Stones of Stenness by 76m SE of the Watch Stone. Or maybe we up the ante to three holed stones ? Don't think so.
The other images do give a broad outline of its later history if you ignore their published sequence. As the second sentinel stone it is described in 1693 (with the Watchstone) as of a similar size to the stones in the circle and so shown in Pococke. Which means that subsequently it had to have been reduced to roughly half its original size, and indeed a short time later Low gives it as a "pretty broad stone, probably broke from its original height". At about this time the stone is shown as what I would call a doublet, a stone of two halves of which one is that recognisable as the named Stone Of Odin. The hole is towards the split/join with the nearby edge worn away in a curve, probably by the plighting pair steadying themselves on the mound. In 1772 Walden depicts the Stone of Odin as one stone but with another laid flat by it with a wrecking bar and a shallow hole. This is either the moment the two were reduced to one or a time when a plane of the now singleton had been split off. All of which means that before its virtual destruction in 1814 (tho William Wilson still speaks of the two sentinels as late as 1842) it had aleady been the subject of attrition for 30-50 years.

Regarding the holed stone in Pococke in 1806 Lady Stafford draws a large holed stone and a year later Neil talks of a single stone of of great size, by which time the accepted Stone of Odin had been reduced in size to 8' for at least three decades. This stone tapers slightly out from the bottom and has an angled top, it is cleft from top to bottom along the plane and has the hole along the central axis near the base. Unfortunately PSAS CVII only shows the stone and not the entire drawing, so perhaps some archaeologist is laughing up his sleeve at me now [join in please]. Like many early antiquarians Pococke gives no proper names for his sites and so does not call this the Stone of Odin as imagined by some (in 1703 Brand likens the shape of the two circles to the sun and moon, and though by 1716 Martin Martin refers to them as the Temples of Sun and Moon the Bishop of Ossory does not, and it is a little later still that these names are alluded to as being local). I had thought to simply drop Pococke's measurements onto the map but that would require firstly one 1:10,000 or larger and secondly whether he used as a reference the edge of the henge or only the circle itself. So instead I would find the stone fragments by the field line, assuming them to lie close together where the stone was destroyed, note where this was and then go into the next field to that place and then follow the compass west to see if I could find any trace of his SE stone. Ah, sheep in the way in both fields.
Coming towards the bridge looking over the Stenness loch for seals I thought there were none. Then over my shoulder one of the rocks in the water bowed up, they're very good at that for seals are the original recumbents. Only the one. At the bridge decided to look for evidence of the second sentinel, so walked down onto the eastern shore. Surprised to find another line of stepping stones shining in the loch. Longer than the one from the north end of the bridge and having a kink along its length. Could the causeway have taken a turn or is it part of the old ford. Well, it is at about a right angle to the other and both end abruptly, so more questions than answers. Moving in I saw that the land end has no gaps and rather than flags with seperation they are something modern[-looking] with chips in. Perhaps placed end over end as the waters rose past the original construction. Curiouser and curiouser. No resolution in sight.
At one point taking pictures by standing on a very small mound, 18" high say, on the shore. Seems to be sand underneath and has to be recent I think. Then there's a fence coming to the shore just before where a jutty-out bit is shown on Pococke beyond with the stone is depicted. Over the other side a quietly sleepy lamb is half-hidden in the grass alone right until I point to shoot, when lambikins goes back to mum. Looking further along the shoreline I can see small stones and plenty of fragments over a several yard stretch, reminding me of how in 1814 stones were "shivered to pieces". Certainly enough to have come from a reduction of the second sentinel stone. Should be further back from the shore perhaps, but the loch could well have risen since (would explain the 'disappearance' of the Clovy Knowes - either underwater or swamped). Looking not far round the coast there are folk at the Barnhouse Settlement - is there a connection ?

At the north end of the bridge I can finally take photos of the swan resting on her nest by the west side, having chosen not to disturb her last time as she was on alert. Stepping back along the bridge I startle a small critter. Twice had her in my sights only for it to disappear down a hole. Read later that Orkney Voles are very common about Brodgar. Comes down to their Neolithic travels I imagine - they are found nowhere else in Britain and their nearest kin [now] are in the Iberian Peninsula and, IIRC, North Africa. Still not sure of my leg so went along the road and took coastal track from Brodgar Farm (trying to decide if any of the present structures is the feolh [turf-built] cottage of an early account).
After a little while thought I would track the shoreline instead. Had thought to be dry keeping tight to the edge only to find even some of that squishy underfoot. In a few places the shore is level for several metres and probably extended further even in the last few centuries. Though Stenness loch is brackish there are patches of flag [wild yellow iris] by the shore. Skylark and twite singing sweetly in the bright light, even posing on posts a long as I don't overstep the bounds. On my way I find one genuine orthostat standing, a coule of feet high and presumably from a pre-modern boundary. Finally get to the Fairy Well for slides and video. A very unassuming nature in her present state, slightly more wellspring than wellhead. But I think it may give some idea of how the well at Fresh Howe would have looked before her canalisation. Back onto the path and by the west end look over to Salt Knowe. From here I see a tall silhoutte just to its right, one of the stones of the Ring of Brodgar. A couple of ladies are sitting on the top, having a chat or a picnic. You think of the mound as cicular but from here as it sits on the skyline there is a distinct trailing of to the southern side, like a computer mouse.

My final target is an odd one. On Thomas map he has a dot at the E end of the Stenness-Sandwick parish boundary. Not a mound, simply a black dot where the fields end. The parish boundary is behind the car park. But I never was much good at
making out maps and waliking the shore find myself coming up to the long line of Sand Holm. There are swans swimming about the islet and a couple nesting. Sit down and have a rest, take some general pictures and try to get my bearings. Looking behind me I see an erect stone with a slanted top and wonder if this could be Pococke's pillar NE of the Ring of Brodgar. Can't tell where it is on the map. Climb up onto a track and head back. Certainly nothing obvious where the fence ends at the shore before the car park area. Just offshore here there is a magnificent flag pavement, even better than the one next the Ness of Brodgar site, and I wonder if fine flat stones from here were traded for the big beggars that make up the circle. A whimsy.
The straightish leg into the Harray loch is the present boundary. There are large flags and other stones along it. The next neck is more curved and is an older boundary, perhaps the other end of the Dyke of Sean. Same kind of makeup here except
slightly neater and there is rather large flag cutting across the neck so I can't help but wonder if there had been a structure here (HY29461363) as suggested for the Seean's west end. Carefully walking across it I gain a different perspective on Fresh Knowe and the "plumcake-shaped mound". Last time I photographed the Plumcake Mound in doing my usual perambulation my feet gave me the distinct impression that there was stuff going on around the outside. From the parish boundary there's a suspicious 'cropmark' at the northern side towards you. Could the mound have been even larger once. Is it a significant depression. Is it purely natural. It is just suspicious to me, old worrywart that I am. At the back of the car park is a modern mound and from the top of it the old and new boundaries (HY294137) look to form a very artificial looking set of pincers, even more so than that at the Bridge of Brodgar.

Coming towards the junction with the main road there is a clean space in the fieldwall on the left that surely has to date back to the pennylands, though strain as I might the field here is a blank canvas, with no other clues to Habreck. Looking across to the kirk road I think I can see a slighter gap that could relate to old Barnhouse. Saw the bus coming and yet if I had been able to run I would have missed it by a gnat's whisker. Not wanting to wait another hour I started off again after a few minutes rest.
Passing the kirk road as I come up to the 'drain' that has taken the place of the top section of the Muckle Burn of Stenness there is a distinct hillock smack beside it. Damn if it ain't the site of Cringloo, not only a 'small hillock' but also 'a flat meadow by the water' - a mighty fine kenning. By the time I reach Tormiston Mill there's still half an hour before the bus even leaves Stromness so I keep on, probably to the amusement of two young ladies by the Maeshowe gate (who are wearing pitch-black glasses as if it were the Sahara). I'm always planning to mark out where the burnt mounds etc are on the N side of the road as otherwise I'm at a loss. Plenty of examples of uneven pastures where burns run or ran either side of the road. You've got to hand it to intelligent folk who can tell the archaeological from the natural when the likes of the Vikingr would use whatever came to hand, building into natural slopes, depositing in already ancient sites, thrusting cists into glacial moraines. Eventually I arrive at the Dounby road juction where two older tourists await the bus at the shelter. From here I can look up to the north and see the Buckle Tower, a giant version of the conical stone cairns such as you find at the Cuween Hill quarry. It was built by a herdie boy of that name in the 19th century [rather apt as buckle is Orcadian for cover (like a shield-boss)]. It is a puzzle how he did it until you find out Buckle left stones sticking out the way for steps and then finished by snapping them off at then as he came back down. Air like an oven at the bus shelter with only a notional breeze outside of it. Could possibly have reached Finstown before the bus caught me up but no sense pushing my luck.

Labels: Stenness boundary, Stone of Odin

Twice I have opted to go from the Stenness parish kirk through the fields to the Stones of Stenness but instead had to follow the fence running NE-SW south of it. And each time I have looked at the stump of the old field wall that this follows. Apart from this both times I have cause to note several large stone fragments near the line that aren't from a wall and each time have mistakenly looked for a gate or other entrance. Now I have the explanation because Pococke's location for a holed stone, 124 yards west of a stone 18 yards south-east of the circle. Further I identify this with the stone depicted by Lady Stafford : tall and shaggy, cleft from the top to ground level, having an angled top (not slanted) and with a central hole near to the base. It is even possible that Dr.R.Henry's description of the stone having a hole 3' up, rather than five, is a reference to this rather than a lapsus pennae.I believe it to have been possibly the size and even age of the Watch Stone
So there were two holed stones near the Stones of Stenness. Of the sentinel stones in Pococke's drawing along the shore the one (?'stone of sacrifice') that isn't the Watch Stone ('stone of power') is described as having a stone in the middle of it. It is roughly diamond shaped and matches well with the stone doublet of Stanley's 1789 drawing (admittedly the latter is a shade more rectangular). Walden's map of 1772 shows a single stone, but this is shown as having just been cleaved in two and the other half of the doublet could be the stone lying flat under the breaking instrument but is more likely from this Stone of Odin. If the former was this heaved out of the shallow hole shown or is that the result of an excavation having taken place ? A hundred and fifty yards N of the stones brings it close to the shore as Pococke shows [~HY30671275], near where Odin Cottage is now.

Labels: Odin Stone, Stone of Odin

Craigie's Close, Kirkwall. Named for David Craigie of Oversanday also of Gairsay fl.1670, much later rebuilt by Paterson as a double tenement. References to Craigie's close and house and also to his house and yard. In 1733 W.Liddell of Hammer given permission to enclose 50' of land at the end of Craigie's yard. By 1826 the N side was a ruin, at which time the place owned by W.W.Bain. In 1882 the houses on the S side were demolished.
Originally I took this for (part of) Parliament Close. It lies at the top end of Bridge Street behind the Careers Scotland building by St.Olaf Wynd, with the old shipping storehouses also nearby from when boats sailed up the burn from the sea. This places it near the site of St.Olaf church and graveyard and also near the the Langstean that bridged the Burn of Pabdale (opposite the end of Bridge St.Wynd). I shall call the far side S, giving the RH side as W. The house remains at the W, back of number 6, you can see the dark trace of the steeply pitched second storey roof there still [my only unphotographed item, so not in the photo section]. And in true medieval fashion it is end on to the street. This is almost entirely unencumbered by post-17th century stuff as far as I can tell. This is the same house shown in Hossack except reduced to one storey since that was drawn. The W side faces the Commercial Bank and the wall has several bay windows. Set in the far end is a beautiful arched fireplace. At its LH side there is a rubble filled gap of about a foot and then a shorter length of wall. On what I take to be the E side of the close is another incomplete wall with a bay that I assume to have been another bay window. At the back of the close is a mostly whitewashed wall wth a very plain and simple fire from a much later period. This S wall is a little proud of the house end. Coming out and going to the Commercial Bank there is a well decorated doorway in the W wall that has been blocked off on the other side.
I overheard a guide tell tourists that things had died out in the 16th century, but I'm sure lairds other than Mansie Hay would also have continued the tradition. The bank has been built on the site of Parliament Close, which had by then become a rookery where boys played in the ruins, with two entrances and a rear exit. By this time the SE corner of Parliament House had been turned into a stables - could it be that Craigie's house and Parliament House are one and the same ?? Craigie's house is one of several important buildings to continue the use of red freestone in the fashion of the Earl and Bishop Palaces. Its not far from one of the original ends of the Ba. Another of these is Spout [album updated] at the other end of the Bishop's lands (probably belonging to the same circle of people). But though this is now the Ba Castle the game originally finished at the boundary dyke halfway up Wellington Street. I think I now know why the authors of "Monumenta Orcadia" thought this the most likely building in Kirkwall to date back to Norse times. It is built upon land belonging to the member of an early earl's retinue, the name Cuikosquoy later being replaced by Quoyangrie. As we do not have the floor of this place yet it could still be on an early foundation - I cannot tell if the arch now incorporated in the wall of a Junction Road house is a fireplace or a vault. I also wonder how far it came onto what is now Main Street.

Labels: Craigie's Close, Parliament House

Stenness just prior to Thomas visit reported in Archaeologia IV
William Wilson 1842 "Stones of Stennis... in one case in a vast circle surrounded by a mount, in the other in insulated groups of two or three together, either forming parts of an approach to the circle, or themselves the sole remnants of other corresponding circles...
none of them is very thick in proportion to its height and breadth... The summits are generally diagonal... and they seem also in many cases to be imbedded in the earth by a corresponding sloping corner. Their original position was no doubt
perpendicular although others are leaning to their fall, and not a few are lying flat upon the ground...
Although the gigantic remnants near the Kirkwall road are too few in number to indicate the circular form, yet that... is sufficiently manifested by the distinct traces of a large green mound in which they are enclosed... almost continuous semicircle... the other segment having been ploughrd up... One of the largest of these stones now lies flat... having been loosened it is said... by the plough, and soon after blown over by a gale... A... boy... said they were brought there from a distance long ago by the mytes... he... rather thought "a kind of speerits" [perhaps plural of the Mighty that were of old]
Close to either side of the southern end of the bridge... stands a great sentinel stone. [Pocokes 1760 drawing shows the second as a little further from the roadside and it looks like a recumbent i.e. bulky cuboid on its side. I suppose there's an outside chance this had been a large natural boulder like the Savile Stone on Sanday]
... the completer... circle of the... Stones of Stennis... as you approach them you pass here and there a solitary stone or broken remnant, as if there had been... a connecting range or approach, all the way from the bridge to the great circle. The
latter is encompassed by a still entire mound, surrounded by a foss [sic], and there is a filling up of the foss and a lowering of the mound, just at two entrance places, opposite each other, north and south."

Labels: Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness, Watch Stone

PSAS should read POAS XIV "... Orkney Antiquarian Society"

Over at Nether Bigging [aka Netherbigging] on a tongue of land called Gernaness [Girn of Ness] excavations at a site often underwater, called Clouston Castle [by its excavator at least ], were interpreted as a Norse borg plus a hof 'pagan temple' [fort HY31SW 36 HY30061192]. However tradition places an early church there and a tower whose remains they dug here was said to resemble that at Cross Kirk. Could it even be that when the site began to be flooded they moved on over to the present parish church ? Even if not it raises questions as to whether the Stenness kirk also started life as more than a religious foundation. At the 1906 rebuild two 14th century brooches were found. By the old altar a bottomless long cist in clay held a woman's body. Old notes attached to the museum exhibit state that the brooches lay beside her head but "The Orcadian" in 1907 says merely that they came from "one of the graves". In 1760 Pococke describes the church as mortarless or clay-bonded, having a thatch roof and a [semi-]circular tower at one end. This last is described as a steeple in an annotated copy of a William Aberdeen 'map' of the 1760's. It shows a flat roof so perhaps it was altered when it began use as a prison - St.Magnus Cathedral suffered such usage too. The map shows a tall building with yard to its left on the same patch of land, something like Garson by the looks of it, and F.W.L.Thomas map of 1849 bears the annotation in this area "The foundations of ancient Manor-house, or Place, are here perceptible, called The Trench". But Clouston's copy of the 6d lands of Stenness has the legend 'Palace of Stenness' SE of the kirkyard (E of the short bit of walling that connects to the kirkyard wall) and a geophysical survey found an interesting bunch of signals here. This is not necessarily an either or situation as though in Kirkwall locals talk of palaces as 'The Yards' in Stenness and Birsay the talk is of "the place" referring to the main or courtyard of a settlement, so it could be there had been an earlier dwelling which had gone by 1760. In 1956 Leith says locals believed 'the place' had occupied land in the area of the new churchyard and according to POAS XIV (two decades earlier) locals pointed to somewhere S of the kirk as having been a large building called The Palace of Stenness. In 1792 the church was rebuilt [on the same axis ?] and a stone vestry (HY31111245) built beside gate. Presumably this is when the ?secular building was taken down and the stones re-used, as this is gone by 1849 and the next re-build didn't take place until around 1843. Some red freestone window mouldings discovered in 1906 when the church adopted a smaller footprint are believed to be such re-used material. When Clouston excavated in 1906 he found that the tower had been built upon a square foundation and that this was narrower than the body of the church, contradicting Aberdeen's drawing. Perhaps a fresh look would re-assess the levels. Or not. His survey of this area is incomplete because he began to find what he describes as a "hint of bone" and he found no prior foundations within a yard of the W end - however in 1966 Ordnance Survey found a 1.2m long stretch of walling 0.2m high at HY31071245. Burials from near the new foundation were placed into a common grave. All things considered the kirk and manor-house of Pococke's map taken together are the Palace of Stenness of educated folk with the latter the 'place' of oral tradition. When it comes to being able to see ships coming from Hoy into Stromness we can only be talking of the viewpoint of one on the tower's flat roof.
In 1563 the Bellendens were granted the 6d land of Stenness with Vsquoy (Housequoy) & Mekilquoy [E of the kirk road] & Anderswi(c)k & Duascarth (Dowasgarth) & Bro(a)gar and for them and their descendants "the lands of the manse and principal house of Stenhoose." Included was the meadow of Biggiswall (Bigswell), a [tithe] barn and a mill. I thought the latter to be the predecessor of that at Tormiston but consideration of the boundaries means it would have been that beyond Housequoy that gave its name to Millhouse and Millquoy. The barn site would not be where Barnhouse is now, for on J.S.Clouston's copy of the 6d map [archive GB241/D23/10 p.100 of notebook] Barnhouse is in the field with the Barnhouse Standing Stone only about halfway up. On the other side of the field from old Barnhouse, by the Brodgar road, is shown a house called Habreck. According to "Orkney Farm Names" meaning not known [but perhaps cognate Haybreck/Hibreck].
Technically a manse is the priest's house amidst the glebe lands appertaining thereto. But throughout Stenness history kirk and manse have been used indiscrimately. One source has an alehouse near the church (probably small like Chinglebraes). Except that an account of the 1730s tells us that when the manse was not able to be used the officials used the alehouse at Knockhall instead. So are Manse and Knockhall the "manse and principal house". Alternatively should the phrase be read as the manse which is the principal house [another meaning of manse being manor-house (in Orkney later the term is mansion house)], as on Clouston's map Knockhall is in brackets to mark the name itself as late. The manse has been in many places e.g. Leith reports that in 1884 a new one was built on the hill above the church only to be sold in 1937 and renamed Saltigeo. Sultigeo is the site of the F.C. manse above the Clouston kirk.
P.S. On Clouston's map Big How(e) is named Biggoo which might mean that the name by which the site is now known is an antiquarian's rendering to bring out his interpretion of its meaning [so e.g. not big but bygga 'barley']. Six Clovy Knowes are shown in the SW corner of the field containing the Stones of Stenness circle and hence S of the Barnhouse Neolithic settlement. Pococke refers to these sans name and number and two of them (HY31SW 35) still appear on Thomas map. I think some stones from them were used to form the boundary running NE-SW to the Brodgar road.
Leith mentions an old house now gone. Cringloo was along the edge of the Muckle Burn of Stenness, which for most of its northern length has been canalised to be shown as a drain on modern maps. The name I read as two elements, the second being loo 'flat meadow by water'. However in a dialect dictionary I found the word kringlo 'small hillock'. Unfortunately even from the context there are no further clues in Leith as to where Cringloo was or where he found out about it.
In person
I visited Stenness kirk again. There are two carved stone mouldings of the same design in the kirkyard, one lying on the ground and the other wedged erect against a gatepost. They look to have come from a roof and are small pillar shapes with curves along the sides and a cross 'extruding' horizontally on top [photos in my Orkney Buildings Yahoo group]. Perhaps they came from the vestry that once stood by here, or else an earlier build of the kirk. I circled the church anti-clockwise looking for any signs of an earlier structure. As well as the modern stone grave covers there are less well hewn slabs protruding erect from the earth in various places in the SW quadrant of the kirkyard, which is where the land rises above the church itself. These are isolated and do not form any pattern - they don't appear to be mediaeval gravemarkers going by how one of them nearly came out when I wiggled it and all I can think of is that they were used to indicate where lines of modern graves should go. The rise here is covered in moss and very spongy, it really feels as if there is some far older physical presence below the new graves. It strikes me that perhaps that is what caused the parish church to be built at this spot, some antient site lost even to the antiquarian view of much earlier times. Just over the NW corner (HY31051243) is a small derelict structure of modern design, a new cottage once I'd wager. Coming down on the level again there is a hut next the S side of the kirkyard. Upon leaving the yard I turned to face the top of the rise where a rough wide track strikes up to that abandoned dwelling. Its very bumpy and bears all the signs of having been used as a dump for materials a long time ago. Finally I have it. Here lay the mansio before the kirkyard wall became extended and it was plundered for a holy purpose. Not in any field but in a triangle of land abstracted from a secular holding and mostly left to vegetate. From memory roughly HY31071242 on Pastmap.

Labels: Clovy Knowes, Palace of Stenness, Stenness Cross Kirk

18th Century Stenness, mostly lesser circle

Pococke 1760
"[from the Ring of Brdgar] There is a single pillar about 50 yards to the North East, and a barrow to the North and South, one to the South West and another to the North East...
another circle of stones [Stones of Stenness] which are 15 feet high, 6 feet broad, the circle is about 30 yards in diameter, and the stones are about 8 yards apart. There are two standing to the South, one is wanting, and there are two stones standing, a third lying down, then three are wanting, there being a space of 27 yards so that there were eight in all : Eighteen yards South East from the circle is a single stone, and 124 yards to the East of that is another [Odin Stone] with a hole in one side towards the bottom, from which going to the circle is another [stone] 73 yards from the fossee [sic], the outer part of which fossee is 16 yards from the circle : there are several small barrows chiefly to the East [Clovy Knowes]." His map shows a large squat stone close to the shore E of the S end of the bridge - this and the possible causeway perhaps a reminder of when the main road went along the driveway to Stenness Kirk.

Low ~1774 unpublished ms "History of the Orkneys" quoted in 1879 edition published by William Peace [referring to a lost drawing, that published being one by William Aberdeen from the1760's]
"[Stones of Stenness] The drawing shows the stones in their present state, which is four entire and one broken [??recumbent]. It is not ditched about like ... [Ring of Brodgar]..but surrounded with a raised mound partly raised on the live earth, as the other was cut from it... near the circle are several stones set on end without any regular order, or several of them so much broken, hinder us as to the design of them."

William Aberdeen's annotated map [donated to Royal Society of London 1784] is the source of observations attributed later to Hibbert
"When Oliver Cromwell's men were in this county they dug tolerably deep in the top [of Maeshowe] , but found nothing but earth" also that site used for archery + "[E of Ring of Brodgar] a small mount... still retains the name of Watch Hill or Tower [Plumcake Mound rather than Fresh Knowe I think]."

Labels: Knowes of Broidgar, Maes Howe, Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness