Clifton College Scientific Society. 95 



eminence, at the head of this inlet, is formed into a very perfect fortified 

 burgh. No more of these appear further north, but a fine specimen is 

 said to occur on one of the Holmes, or rocks, hing of Wick. The 

 fort in question is of much the same size as those ah-eady passed, 

 and consists of an inner circular chamber, ten yards in diameter, 

 whose wall is several feet thick, and, no doubt, contained rooms like 

 those at Snaburgh. An oblong ditch lined with stones, two feet deep 

 and two broad, lies across this court in the direction of east and west, 

 but what was its purpose I cannot say. Two raiiipaits of earth 

 defend this fort ; the outer one is ten feet high and about twenty 

 broad at the base, and surrounds the keep except at the westei'u side, 

 where it is not needed owing to the steep declivity of the hill. The 

 inner one is of the same height, and forms a complete circle. A 

 ditch is dug between these ramparts, and another one outside, which 

 latter, probably, served as a moat. 



Such forts were, no doubt, originally circular towers with surround- 

 ing earthworks and ditches, similar to the well-known burgh of 

 JMousa, on the west coast of Shetland. Their walls, of which only 

 the foundations now remain, were thick enough to contain small 

 rooms, while the inner space served to store ])rovisions in. The hill 

 of Vallafield has here its abrupt southern termination. 



1 now i)roceeded inland towards the east, to take the road that leads 

 from Uya to Balta. When about three quarters of a mile inland 

 (E.S.E. of Wick), attention is attracted by an enormous stone, stand- 

 ing majestically on the wild heath, like a sentinel whose hoary locks 

 of lichen tell that it has stood throughout ages, and, though nnw 

 slightly leaning, it looks as though it would stand for many moie. 

 This gigantic monolith is of much larger size than the one at Uya, 

 and its date and cause of erection are likewise mere matters of 

 conjecture. It is composed of gneiss, and was therefore brought 

 from no distance. I measured it as over fourteen feet high, eight and 

 a half broad, five feet thick, and twenty-one feet eight inches in girth, 

 and it must have nearly a third of its entii-e length below the surface 

 of the ground ; it is quite unshaped. What grand occasion could 

 have employed so many hands in the setting up of such a monument? 

 Perhaps some signal victory, or the triumph of some chief, for no 

 doubt these early tribes had their heroes. Perhaps, then, to the 

 memory of some Wellington or Kelson of a former daj', was erected, 

 not a mortared column, but one huge stone set on end, that would 

 defy the ravages of time and transmit to future generations the fame 

 of ancient deeds. We know notliiug alxmt these stones — there is no 

 inscription, not a mark to guide us ; they may be of any age, and we 

 should, probably, arrive somewhere near the true date of their erection, 

 if we assigned them to a time far before the days of the Vikings. 



A few more steps over the solitary heath brought me on to the 

 safe road to Balta. Near Watley Lech, before the road crosses a 

 small wooden bridge, there runs a brook called Yelaburn, whose waters 

 were, up to recent times, supposed to possess sanitive properties. The 

 custom was that all who imbibed its waters were first to th row in three 



