The Standing Stones of Stenness: A Neolithic Masterpiece

The Standing Stones of Stenness, known as 'Stane-is' in Old Norse, are a Neolithic monument located five miles northeast of Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, Scotland. These stones form part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in December 1999. The site may be the oldest henge in the British Isles and is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.

The surviving stones are sited on a promontory at the south bank of a stream that joins the southern ends of the sea loch Loch of Stenness and the freshwater Loch of Harray. Excavation has shown that this site was a henge monument, featuring a ditch cut into rock by as much as 2 m (6.6 ft) and 7 m (23 ft) wide, surrounded by an earth bank. The stones themselves are thin slabs, approximately 30 cm (12 in) thick with sharply angled tops.

Work on the site is thought to have begun by 3100 BCE. The monument is considered a unique and early expression of the ritual customs of the people who inhabited settlements like Skara Brae and used burial sites like Maeshowe. Today, the stones remain a dominant feature of the rural landscape, representing a significant stage of human history when the first large ceremonial monuments were built.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons