i 



1905-1906.] A Trip to the Island of Hoy. 283 



a great fragment of rock, which possibly by the action of frost 

 became detached from a belt of the same material high up the 

 mountain side, and rolled down the declivity till it found its 

 present resting-place. The rocky face cresting the eminence 

 above where the stone now lies is a breeding-place of the 

 peregrine falcon, and is designated in the ordnance map as the 

 Dwarfie Hammers, The stone is about twenty-two feet long, 

 seventeen feet broad, and seven feet high. I measured it 

 carefully with my foot-rule, but having lost my notes, have 

 had to copy the measurements from other writers, who, I 

 observe, vary considerably. The upper end of the stone has 

 been hollowed out by iron tools into an apartment containing 

 two beds. The largest bed is 5 feet 8 inches long by 2 feet 

 broad, and is the one supposed to have been used by the 

 dwarf himself. The other one is shorter ; and though I tried 

 to stretch myself in the former, I did not attempt to do so in 

 the latter. To my mind the stone has been hewn out by some 

 half-witted mason, of kinship to the " crank " who excavated 

 the Gilmerton subterranean cave. Sir Walter Scott, however, 

 has woven round this place such a halo of romance that, as 

 already observed, it is one of the wonders of the Orkney 

 Islands, and is visited yearly by numbers of people. Eeaders 

 of ' The Pirate ' are familiar with the words of Noma of the 

 Fitful Head in reference to this stone. She says : " I was 

 chiefly fond to linger about the Dwarfie Stone, as it is called — 

 a relic of antiquity which strangers look on with curiosity, and 

 the natives with awe. . . . The inside of the rock has two 

 couches, hewn by no earthly hand, and having a small passage 

 between them. The doorway is now open to the weather ; 

 but beside it lies a large stone which, adapted to grooves still 

 visible in the entrance, once had served to open and to close 

 this extraordinary dwelling, which Trolld, a dwarf famous in 

 the northern Sagas, is said to have framed for his own favourite 

 residence. The lonely shepherd avoids the place ; for at sun- 

 rise, high noon, or sunset, the misshapen form of the necro- 

 mantic owner may sometimes still be seen sitting by the 

 Dwarfie Stone." 



Dr Wallace, in his * Description of the Islands of Orkney,' 

 published in 1700, and quoted by Sir Walter Scott in 'The 

 Pirate,' says that from the Dwarfie Stone may be seen at 



