96 Transactions of the 



small stones, and a considerable pile of these offerings may be seen a 

 few yards to the left of the road. But modern profanity, which langhs 

 at such superstitions, has ceased to invoke the favours of the water 

 sprite ; and everywhere we find superstitions ideas giving way to true 

 argument. Another two miles northwards and the peaceful shores of 

 Balta are reached. 



All the walls of Unst are built dry, and so we often find old 

 foundations and lines of stones, which must not be mistaken for relics 

 of antiquity. Barrows are not common in Unst, and they take the 

 form of the cairn or piles of loose stones. 



It is worth spending a day close round Balta, for many interesting 

 objects are situated in the middle of the island. The most prominent 

 of these are the concentric circles on Crucifield Hill, which receives 

 its name from them. As they cannot be seen at any distance, owing 

 to the rugged nature of the serpentine, the best way of finding them 

 is to steer E.N.B. of the ruinous kirk of Baliasta (situated to the 

 south of North Lake), until the top of Crucifield is reached. These 

 ciix'les are of a type very rare in Britain, for they are not defined by 

 stones standing apart from one another, neither by low blocks, but 

 they consist of perfectly circular mounds, composed of large and small 

 stones embedded in earth, and enclosing a space in which are similar 

 circles having a common centi'e with the outer circumference. There 

 are two sets of these constructions on Crucifield Hill. The larger 

 contains three such circles — the diameter of the outer one measures 

 fifty-six feet, and the mound is four feet thick at the base ; the middle 

 ring is forty-six feet in extreme diameter, and five feet thick, and is 

 separated from the outer by a shallow ditch ; while the innermost 

 circle is thirty-four feet in diameter, and four feet broad. In the 

 middle there is an earthen pile, fourteen feet wide, and one foot high. 

 The highest part of these mounds is twenty inches, and the largest 

 stone I could see among them is four feet long, two broad, and one 

 thick, and composed or serpentine ; some of the stones are of diallage. 



Thirty-six feet south-'i\est of this " temple" is another consisting of 

 two concentric circles, with a low tumulus in the middle. 



One of the circles contains three small erect stones, the highest 

 being two ieet three inches, and these seem to shew that the mounds 

 were once higher, though even now their circumference is perfectly 

 smooth and undisturbed. Of this group of circles the outer one 

 measures thirty-one feet in diameter, the inner eighteen feet, and the 

 central pile nine feet. 



Opinions seem to differ with regard to the purpose of these con- 

 structions, but it is generally agreed that they are of Scandinavian 

 origin, for similar remains are found in Norway. Some suppose them 

 to have been civil courts of justice, where the floude, or judge, 

 occupied the interior circle, while the assembly arranged themselves 

 according to rank in the outer circles. Others connect them with the 

 religion of the Norsemen, as places where sacrifices were offered to 

 Thor and Odin, and other Scandinavian deities, and this seems to be 

 the most probable theory. II these then, are the temples where the 



