34 



NA rURE 



[May 



II, 1905 



tion connected with the May year at the stones of 

 Stenness. The November sunset is provided for by 

 a sight-line from the circle to a stone across the Loch 

 of Stenness with an azimuth of S. 53° 30' \V. 



To apply the table to the solstitial risings and set- 

 tings at Stenness, and the sight-lines which I have 

 plotted on the map, it will be seen that the table shows 

 us that the lines marked 



N. 39° ^o' E. S. 41° o' E. 



N. 41° "16' E. S. 36° 30' W. 



are solstitial lines; to get exact agreement with the 

 table the heights of the hills must be found and 

 allowed for. I have roughly determined this height 

 from the i-inch map in the case of the Barnstone- 

 Maeshowe alignment. 



On the N.E. horizon are the Burrien Hills, four miles 

 awav, 600 feet high at the sunrise place, gradually 



We have the November sunset marked by a stand- 

 ing stone on the other side of the Loch of Stenness, 

 Az. 53° 30'. 



June rising, Az. true 39°. The top of Hindera field, 

 more than 500 feet high, the highest peak, triangula- 

 tion station. 



December rising, tumulus (Az. 41°) on Ward Hill. 



December setting, tumulus Onston 36° 30'. 



General Remarks. 



It is not a little remarkable that the winter solstice 

 rising and setting seem to have been provided for at 

 the Stenness circle by alignment on the centres of 

 two tumuli across the Loch, one the Onston tumulus 

 to the S.W. (Az. 36° 30'), the other tumulus being on 

 Ward Hill to the S.E., Az. 41° (rough measurement). 



It looks also verv much as if the Maeshow tumulus 



C&'Stoi. 



Fig. 16. — Copy of Ordnance Map showing chief sight lines from the Stones of Stenness. 



ascending to the E., vertical angle = 1° 36' 30". The 

 near alignment is on and over the centre of Maeshowe. 

 Colonel Johnston, the Director-g^eneral of the Ordnance 

 Survey, has informed me that the true azimuth of 

 this bearing- is N. 41° 16' E., and in all probability 

 it represents the place of sunrise as seen from the 

 Barnstone when Maeshowe was erected. What is 

 most required in Orkney now is that some one with 

 a good 6-inch theodolite should observe the sun's 

 place of rising and the angular height of the hills 

 at the next summer solstice in order to determine the 

 date of the erection of Maeshowe. Mr. Spence and 

 others made an attempt to determine this value with 

 a sextant in 1899, but not from the Barnstone. 



The Ordnance maps give no indication of stones, 

 &c., by which the direction of the midsummer setting 

 or the midwinter rising and setting might have been 

 indicated from either the Maeshowe or the Barnstone. 



To sum up the solar alignments from the circle. 



We have the May sunrise marked by the top of 

 Burrien Hill, from 600 to 700 feet high, Az. 59° 30'. 



NO. 1854, VOL. 72] 



was an after structure to use the Barnstone for the 

 summer solstice rising; then these two other tumuli, 

 to deal with the winter solstice at Stenness circle, 

 may have been added at the same time. .Ml these 

 provided for a new cult. 



There are also tumuli near the line (which cannot 

 be exactly determined because the heights of the hills 

 are unknown) of the summer solstice setting ; none 

 was required for the sunrise at this date, as the line 

 passes over the highest point of Hindera fiold, a 

 natural tumulus more than 500 feet high, and on that 

 account a triangulation station. 



.Another argument in favour of the tumuli being 

 additions to the original design is that the place of 

 the November setting from the Stenness circle is 

 marked, not by a tumulus, but by a standing stone. 

 .As the stone near Deepdale and the tumulus at 

 Onston are only about 1200 yards apart, the sugges- 

 tion may be made that in later times tumuli in some 

 cases replaced stones as collimation marks. 



Norman Lockyer. 



