Hill O’Many Stanes
Stone Rows
ND 295 384
Continue south to the main road, turn left and head on the A99 towards Wick for about 5 miles. The site is signposted and there is room for a couple of cars to park here. A very short walk will take you up to the site.
This site, also known as the Mid Clyth stone rows, is in a fan shaped arrangement of over 200 small standing stones set in 22 rows down the side of a hill. It has been estimated that before the rows were disturbed there would have been as many as 600 stones here. It is the largest and best preserved site of multiple stone rows in Caithness.
They run down the southern slope of a low hill for about 100 metres from north to south fanning out slightly to the south. Over the last 100 years about 50 stones have been removed from the site and lost.
There are a lot of fairly tall stones in the gorse of the next field to the NNW that may have been a feature. Just to the southeast there is a stone outcrop where the stones were probably quarried. There are also several large flat slabs, probably natural outcrops around the top of the site. It has been suggested that stone rows, like circles, were used for gatherings and ceremonies, it must have been important as a vast amount of effort went into constructing this site.
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