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Standing stones
in Orkney.

It’s 01:43 in Orkney.
Orkney

Brochs, cairns and a lochside henge.

Some of Orkney's stones were raised 5,000 years ago, and you can still walk among them. By the Loch of Stenness, four great stones stand tall from what may be the oldest henge in the British Isles. Nearby, a grassy mound hides a chambered tomb lined up with the midwinter sun and scratched with Viking runes. A smaller cairn on the loch shore is entered on hands and knees. On the coast at Evie, an Iron Age broch still has its village of stone houses round it. Book the guided tour of the midwinter tomb ahead, and bring a torch for the cairn.

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Did you knowJust now

The Stones of Stenness, on Orkney, may be the oldest henge in the British Isles.

They were raised more than 5,000 years ago, and Historic Environment Scotland counts them as possibly the earliest henge monument anywhere in Britain and Ireland.

See Standing Stones of Stenness · Orkney
Stone circle of the dayJust now

Unstan Cairn.

A 5,000-year-old chambered tomb by the Loch of Stenness, where you crawl in to see its stalls; free, any time.

Read about it
From the magazineJust nowThe printed copy of Issue 08Issue 08Spring / Summer 2024

Asked how he got the right to graze his sheep among the Stones of Stenness in Orkney, the farmer Jimmy Tulloch replied, 'Oh, I own them'.

The man asking was Jim Richardson, a photographer for National Geographic, who first went to Orkney for the magazine and then kept going back for 25 years. 'They were on the farm when I bought it,' Jimmy explained, and to Jim it summed up the islands, where such things are just an ordinary fact of life. Everybody in Orkney talks about archaeology, and islanders joke that you can't stick a spade in the ground without hitting something ancient. The Neolithic stones stand beside the narrow road that runs on past the Ring of Brodgar, close to where archaeologists uncovered massive buildings from 5,000 years ago at the Ness of Brodgar.

See Standing Stones of Stenness · Orkney
LunchJust nowOrkneyThe Foveran7.6 milesOrkneyHelgi’s8.9 milesOrkneyLynnfield Hotel9.3 miles

Lunch near Standing Stones of Stenness.

The three good places closest to it: The Foveran, Helgi’s and Lynnfield Hotel.

See Standing Stones of Stenness
Did you knowJust now

Until 1814, couples at the Stones of Stenness in Orkney sealed their engagements by joining hands through a holed standing stone, a pledge called the Vow of Odin.

The Odin Stone stood near the great ring, pierced with a round hole, and local couples held hands through it to seal an engagement. In 1781 one writer, Principal Gordon, recorded that such pledges were called the promises of Odin, and that a young man who broke his was told by the elders that 'he has broke the promise of Odin'. Visitors left small offerings at the stone, a piece of bread or cheese, a rag or a pebble. Then in December 1814 the farmer who owned the land smashed it. The ring itself was begun by about 3100 BC, and four of its tall stones still stand, the highest about five metres.

See Standing Stones of Stenness · Orkney

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