Treasured Places
Date 14 August 2007
Event ID 545935
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Treasured Places
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/545935
The Stones of Stenness comprise five uprights in a circle that, originally, probably held twelve stones. They stand within a bank and ditch with one entrance, a type of monument known as a henge. The ditch represents a considerable investment of labour, as it is 45m in diameter, over 7m wide and cut into bedrock to a depth of over 2m. Radiocarbon dating of bones found in the ditch demonstrate that the site was in use in the early 3rd millennium BC, a similar period to the nearby monuments of Maes Howe, the Ring of Brodgar and the settlements of Barnhouse and Skara Brae.
Information from RCAHMS (SC) 14 August 2007
Ritchie, A and Ritchie, G 1991