By the Rev. J. L. Ross. 



243 



" On the Loch Stennis in the principal island of the Orkneys 

 called the Mainland, there is a circle sixty fathoms in diameter, 

 formed by a ditch on the outside, twenty feet broad, and twelve 

 deep ; and on the inside by a range of standing stones, twelve or 

 fourteen feet high, and four broad ; several of them are fallen down : 

 of others fragments remain, and of some only the holes in which they 

 stood. The earth that has been taken from the ditch has been car- 

 ried away, and very probably been made use of to form four tumuli 

 or barrows, of considerable magnitude, which are ranked in pairs on 

 the east and west sides of this remarkable monument of antiquity. 



" The plain on the east border of the Loch exhibits a semicircle, 

 sixteen fathoms in diameter, formed not like the circle with a 

 ditch but by a mound of earth, and with stones in the inside, like 

 the former in shape, though of much larger dimensions. Near the 

 circle, there are standing stones that seem to be placed in no regu- 

 lar order that we can now discern ; and near the semicircle are 

 others of the same description. In one of the latter is a round hole, 

 not in the middle, but towards one of the edges, much worn, as if 

 by the friction of a rope or chain, by which some animal was bound. 

 Towards the centre of the semicircle, too, is a very large broad stone 

 noiv lying on the ground ; but whether it stood formerly like those 

 around it, or has been raised and supported on pillars to serve a 

 particular purpose, we shall not take upon us to determine. 1 



. . . "For the combined and important ends of law and 

 religion no spot could have been devised more convenient in its 

 situation than the Loch Stennis for such a circular structure. Not 

 far distant from the middle of the Mainland, which is itself in the 

 centre of the island, at nearly an equal distance from Birsa where 

 the Princes and Earls used to reside, and Kirkwall, which had long 

 been considered as the capital, — Stennis is within a mile of the 

 bay of Frith, to which boats from the North Isles have ready 

 access ; and still nearer to the bay of Kairston in which boats land 

 from the South Isles with equal facility. Before any civil business 

 commenced in these conventions, sacrifices would be performed ; 

 and the perforated stone that stands near the semicircle might have 



1 Perhaps it served for an altar on which the victims were sacrificed. 



