208 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Thomas Kent 



GRINDING GRAIN WITH THE QUERN IN THE) ORKNEYS 



'Commerce and Science may march forward, but the Shetlands and 

 Orkneys, after ages of turmoil, are taking a vacation." 



These chambers were built of overlap- 

 ping stones, gradually closing toward the 

 top and each surmounted with one large 

 stone. At the western edge of the mound 

 a great wall of dry stone was unearthed. 

 Jt extended back about 70 feet and was 

 from 10 to 20 feet thick. 



The position and shape of this wall in- 

 dicated that it had once been a part of a 

 huge circular wall inclosing a group of 

 buildings of which the broch was the 

 center and largest, while the "beehive" 

 structures were subsidiary. 



I f such were the case, the whole must 

 have constituted a fortress of great 

 strength, sufficient to accommodate a 

 large population and furnish an adequate 



defense for the ex- 

 treme southern point 

 of the island. 



MYSTERIOUS CIRCLES 

 OE MOON AND SUN 



Other interesting 

 relics of that un- 

 known people, who 

 vanished so mysteri- 

 ously, may be seen 

 not two miles from 

 the mound of Mae- 

 showe. These are the 

 so-called Stones of 

 Stenness. 



Separating the 

 Locks of Stenness 

 and Harray is a nar- 

 row neck of land, 

 known as the Bridge 

 of Brogar, at the 

 southern entrance to 

 which is a huge stone, 

 18 feet high, popu- 

 larly designated a s 

 the "Watch Stone," 

 or "Sentinel." 



In a field at the 

 right are the remains 

 of a circle of similar 

 stones, not quite so 

 large as the Watch 

 Stone, in the midst of 

 which is a rude table, 

 or altar, made of 

 three short stones 

 standing on end, and 

 surmounted by a large 

 flat stone or slab. 

 This is the Ring of Stenness, or the Circle 

 of the Moon (see page 203). 



Across the bridge, a quarter of a mile 

 away, is a larger group, properly desig- 

 nated as the Ring of Brogar, but com- 

 monly known as the Circle of the Sun. 

 It is about 120 yards in diameter and was 

 surrounded by a fosse or trench at least 

 6 feet deep, the outlines of which are dis- 

 tinctly traceable. The stones of this 

 larger circle are from 8 to 16 feet high; 

 one is from 5 to 6 feet wide, and all are 

 crude and irregular in shape (pp. 201-2). 

 Fifteen remain standing, although the 

 group originally contained thirty-five or 

 forty. They have a strange, shaggy cov- 

 ering of unusually long lichens, like an 



