Ring of Brodgar
Stone Circle and henge
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This is quite a stunning setting and until around 11.30am there are few people here. You have to keep to the paths around the site that lead to the Comet Stone and up several of the cairns and mounds. The site is ringed by mounds that make good vantage points to sit and view the entire site as it is huge. We were lucky with the weather as well and had a very pleasant hour here.
Ring of Brodgar in the morning light
This is the largest circle in Scotland with some 36 stones remaining from an original 60 measuring 340ft (103.6m) across. Some of the stones are up to 4.5 metres high. The site comprises a stone circle surrounded by a ditch with no trace of a bank. The ditch was originally up to 3m deep and 9m across and is crossed by two causeways, one in the NW and one in the SE. This may have been part of a ritual complex including Maes Howe 1.5 miles to the ESE, the Stones of Stenness a mile to the SE and the Ring of Bookan a mile to the NW.
Near where you enter the site on the north side one of the stones has early Norse carving on it including runes and a cross. This is on the stump of a stone just to the left. Some other stones are littered with more modern graffiti and one stone on the west has been split when it was hit by lightning in 1980. A sign suggests this might have happened to others and account for other broken stones.
Norse runes and a cross
The stones average 2.1 metres in height but to the south is a 3.8 metre high pillar and to the west is a 4.7 metre stone. On a low circular mound 137 metres to the SE is the 1.8 metre high Comet Stone with two stumps either side of it in a SW-NE alignment. The stone is sandstone that splits easily into thin slabs.
Comet Stone
Another mile further on there is the site called Ring of Bookan. All that seems to remain here is a grass mound with some signs of fallen stone on it but as the field was full of cattle and there was nowhere to park the van safely we had to leave it.
Our last night on the island was spent at Brodgar and Stenness before getting the early morning ferry. Some of the photos of the sun going down and the moon rising are on separate pages.
More photos of Brodgar Evening and moonlight photos of Brodgar
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