176 OBKNEI . 



may be seen from the same spot, stand the wails and 

 tower of probably the earliest Christian church in 

 Britain. 



The Standing Stones of Stennis are still about thirty in 

 number, forming portions of two circles, the larger of 

 which measures above a hundred yards in diameter, and 

 the smaller about thirty-four. These circles are not now 

 complete, as many of the stones have fallen and many 

 have disappeared, but sufficient traces remain to show 

 what they were. The stones vary in form and size, and 

 are all totally unhewn. The largest is about fourteen 

 feet high, but the average height is from eight to ten. 

 They are grand, solemn-looking old veterans, painfully 

 silent regarding their past life, as if ashamed to speak of 

 those bloody rites in which they may have had a share. 



They were formerly called Druidical Circles, perhaps 

 for no better reason than that their history is utterly 

 unknown. 



Of the mounds called Picts' houses, of which there are 

 hundreds in Orkney, we know as little as we do of the 

 stones, save that they are of two kinds, very similar in 

 construction, and that the smaller seem to have been the 

 dwellings of ihe early inhabitants of the country, and the 

 others the sepulchres of their dead. These structures are 

 cot strictly subterranean, although they are covered with 

 earth. They were either erected on level ground, or 

 excavated in the side of a hill. They are built of large 

 stones converging towards the centre, where an aperture 

 seems to have been left for air and light. Bones ana 



