Erne's Ward
Hut Circle (Prehistoric)
Site Name Erne's Ward
Classification Hut Circle (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 574
Site Number HU31SE 8
NGR HU 38693 12357
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/574
- Council Shetland Islands
- Parish Dunrossness
- Former Region Shetland Islands Area
- Former District Shetland
- Former County Shetland
HU31SE 8 3869 1235.
HU 3868 1236 An approximately circular structure with a wall averaging 9' 6" thick at base, constructed of turf on footings of unmortared masonry, with a masonry facing to the lower layers of turf. The internal diameter was 36'. There were 3' wide entrances on the west and south- east.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930
This site was excavated by Mr and Mrs Rae in 1960, by Alan Small in 1962 (classified as a Bronze Age house, compared with Hut VI at Jarlshof), and again by the Raes in 1964, (classified as an Iron Age round house).
R B K Stevenson has dated some of the pottery to the pre-broch Iron Age.
Mr and Mrs A Rae 1960, 1964; A Small 1962
An excavated hut circle as described by Rae. There are traces of field walls in the vicinity but these are mainly destroyed by military installations and late cultivation.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (NKB) 12 May 1968.
Field Visit (26 August 1930)
Circles of Stones, Hestingsgot, Erne's Ward. On a flat shoulder W.S.W. of the highest point of the Ward Hill are two concentric circles of unhewn stones, set edgeways and almost end to end, some of them projecting for 18 in. above the turf. The outer circle, which has a maximum diameter of 55 ft., contains 33 stones, the largest of which is 6 ft. long and 18 in. broad. It is more complete and more regularly laid than the inner one, the stones of which are sometimes contiguous, sometimes as much as 3 or 4 ft. apart. On the E. both circles are interrupted by a well-marked gap, flanked on the line of the inner one by a stone standing upright on the N. The impression that this gap may represent an entrance is strengthened by the presence of two pointed stones, now lying prone within the inner circle, their ends directed inwards. The two circles are only a foot or two apart, and they show a tendency to converge as they approach the gap.
These circles have been described as ‘a most interesting example of an Astronomical Temple, erected for the worship of the Sun-god’*.They are, however, unlike any known form of prehistoric monument, and their date is therefore entirely doubtful. The most that can be said is that they must belong to the same period as the double rows of similar stones which can be seen cropping up at various places on the side of the hill.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 26 August 1930.
*Nelson, The Cult of the Circle-Builders, with Supplement, p. 8.
