Stones of Stenness

The surviving stones stand on a promontory on the south bank of the stream that joins the Loch of Stenness and the Loch of Harray. The stream was once crossed by a stepping stone causeway. The Ring of Brodgar lies about 1.2 km (0.75 mi) to the north-west, and Maeshowe chambered cairn about 1.2 km (0.75 mi) to the east; several other Neolithic monuments lie nearby, suggesting that the area had particular importance.

Today the site lacks its encircling ditch and bank, but excavation has shown it was a henge. The stones are thin slabs, approximately 30 cm (12 in) thick, with sharply angled tops. Four, up to about 5 m (16 ft) high, are the survivors of a stone circle of up to 12 stones, laid out in an ellipse about 32 m (105 ft) in diameter on a levelled platform of 44 m (144 ft) in diameter surrounded by a ditch. The ditch is cut into rock by as much as 2 m (6.6 ft), is 7 m (23 ft) wide, and is surrounded by an earth bank with a single entrance causeway on the north side, facing towards the Neolithic Barnhouse Settlement.

The Watch Stone stands outside the circle to the north-west and is 5.6 m (18 ft) high; the stump of a second stone was found there in the 1930s. At the centre of the platform is a square stone setting, referred to as a 'hearth', where cremated bone, charcoal and pottery were found. Animal bones were found in the ditch, and the pottery links the monument to Skara Brae and Maeshowe.