Ring of Brodgar

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The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar, or Ring o' Brodgar) is a Neolithic henge and stone circle about 6 miles north-east of Stromness on Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney.

General information

File:Bren gun carriers of the 9th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders pass between the prehistoric standing stones of the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney, 18 June 1941. H10589.jpg

Bren gun carriers of the 9th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders pass between the prehistoric standing stones 18 June 1941

The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar, or Ring o' Brodgar) is a Neolithic henge and stone circle in Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It is the only major henge and stone circle in Britain which is an almost perfect circle. Most henges do not contain stone circles; Brodgar is a striking exception, ranking with Avebury and Stonehenge among the greatest of such sites.<ref>Ritchie 1985, p. 119</ref> The ring of stones stands on a small isthmus between the Lochs of Stenness and Harray. These are the northernmost examples of circle henges in Britain.<ref>Hawkes 1986, p. 261</ref> Unlike similar structures such as Avebury, there are no obvious stones inside the circle,<ref>Hadingham, 1975, pp.55–56</ref> but since the interior of the circle has never been excavated by archaeologists, the possibility remains that wooden structures, for example, may have been present. The site has resisted attempts at scientific dating and the monument's age remains uncertain. It is generally thought to have been erected between 2500 BCE and 2000 BCE, and was, therefore, the last of the great Neolithic monuments built on the Ness.<ref name="orkneyjar">Template:Cite web</ref> A project called The Ring of Brodgar Excavation 2008 was undertaken in the summer of that year in an attempt to settle the age issue and help answer other questions about a site that remains relatively poorly understood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The results of the excavation are still preliminary.

The stone circle is Template:Convert in diameter, and the third largest in the British Isles.<ref name="orkneyjar" /> The ring originally had up to 60 stones, of which only 27 remained standing at the end of the 20th century. The tallest stones stand at the south and west of the ring, including the "Comet Stone" to the south-east.<ref name="Monuments"/>Template:Rp The stones are set within a circular ditch up to Template:Convert deep, Template:Convert wide and Template:Convert in circumference that was carved out of the solid sandstone bedrock by the ancient residents.<ref>Hawkes 1986, p. 262</ref> Technically, this ditch does not constitute a true henge as there is no sign of an encircling bank of earth and rock. Many archaeologists continue to refer to this structure as a henge; for example, Aubrey Burl classifies the ditch as a Class II henge; one that has two opposing entrances, in this case on the north-west and south-east.<ref>Burl 1976, p. 101</ref>

The ditch appears to have been created in sections, possibly by workforces from different parts of Orkney. The stones may have been a later addition, maybe erected over a long period of time.<ref name="Monuments"/>Template:Rp

Examination of the immediate environs reveals a concentration of ancient sites, making a significant ritual landscape. Within Template:Convert there are the two circle-henges, four chambered tombs, groups of standing stones, single stones, barrows, cairns, and mounds.<ref>Laing 1974, p. 84</ref> The immediate area has also yielded a number of flint arrowheads and broken stone mace-heads that seem to date from the Bronze Age.<ref>Childe 1952, p. 35</ref> Although its exact purpose is not known, the proximity to the Ness of Brodgar site and the Standing Stones of Stenness and its Maeshowe tomb beyond make the Ring of Brodgar a site of major importance.

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The first formal survey of the Ring of Brodgar and surrounding antiquities was performed in 1849 by Royal Navy Captain F.W.L. Thomas of HM cutter Woodlark.<ref>Hedges 1984, p. 22</ref> Captain Thomas was in the area drawing up Admiralty Charts in 1848–49, and he and his crew performed archaeological surveys as well resulting in the publication in 1852 of The Celtic Antiquities of Orkney.<ref>Thomas, F. W. L. (1852) "Account of some of the Celtic antiquities of Orkney, including the Stones of Stenness, Tumuli, Picts-houses, etc. with plans" Template:Webarchive Archaeologia 34. pp. 88–136. Retrieved 31 August 2008.</ref>

Excavations of Neolithic ruins

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Neolithic settlement at Brodgar, (August 2014)

Ongoing excavations by Orkney College at the nearby Ness of Brodgar site located roughly midway between the Ring and the Stones of Stenness have uncovered several buildings, both ritual and domestic. Geophysics suggest there are likely to be more in the vicinity. Pottery, bones, stone tools and a polished stone mace head have also been discovered. Perhaps the most important find is the remains of a large stone wall which may have been Template:Convert long and up to Template:Convert wide. It appears to traverse the entire peninsula the site is on and may have been a symbolic barrier between the ritual landscape of the Ring and the mundane world around it.<ref>Ross, John (14 August 2007) "Experts uncover Orkney's new Skara Brae and the great wall that separated living from dead". Edinburgh. The Scotsman.</ref>

Nordic rites

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1823 woodcut, the Ring of Brodgar & surroundings

Invaders from Scandinavia reached Orkney by the 9th century, bringing a complex theology that they imposed on the preexisting Orcadian monuments; at least according to local legend. For example, the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness were allegedly known as the Temple of the Sun and Moon respectively.<ref name="Hedges">Hedges 1984, p. 13</ref> Young people supposedly made their vows and prayed to Wōden at these "temples" and at the so-called "Odin Stone" that lay between the stone circles until it was destroyed by a farmer in 1814.<ref name="Hedges" /> Others view these fanciful names with skepticism; Sigurd Towrie suggests that "they were simply erroneous terms applied by the antiquarians of the 18th or 19th centuries – romantic additions, in the same vein as the infamous "Druid's Circle" and "Sacrificial Altar"."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the very least, several of the stones at Brodgar contain runic carvings that were left by Nordic peoples.<ref>Laing 1974, p. 233</ref> These include the name "Bjorn" and a small cross as well as an anvil.<ref name="Monuments">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

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"Megalithic Yard" and Neolithic astronomers at Brodgar

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The Ring of Brodgar

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The Ring of Brodgar seen from above

Burl<ref>Burl 1976, p. 99</ref> notes that the diameter of the bank at Brodgar is almost exactly the same as the inner banks of the Avebury monument in England and the Newgrange ring in Ireland: 125 "megalithic yards" (MY), at Template:Convert per MY. This is a controversial unit originally proposed by Alexander Thom.<ref>Thom 1955</ref> Thom's thesis, based on a statistical analysis of Neolithic monuments in the United Kingdom, is that the builders of these sites employed a common unit of measurement, although it has not been demonstrated how this information could have been shared.<ref>Burl 1976, p. 71</ref>

Heggie casts doubt on this as well, stating that his careful analysis uncovered "little evidence for a highly accurate unit" and "little justification for the claim that a highly accurate unit was in use".<ref>Heggie 1981 p. 58</ref> Thom and his father made other controversial contentions, for example, that Brodgar and the burial mounds that surround it were designed specifically as backsights for astronomical observations of the Moon.<ref>Thom & Thom 1973</ref> Graham Ritchie points out that the burial mounds have not been reliably dated, and he casts doubt on the astronomical prowess of the builders.<ref>Ritchie 1985, p. 127</ref>

File:Ring of Brodgar - geograph.org.uk - 3768252.jpg

Ring of Brodgar

Euan MacKie suggested that the nearby village of Skara Brae might be the home of a privileged theocratic class of wise men who engaged in astronomical and magical ceremonies at sites like Brodgar and Stenness.<ref>MacKie 1977</ref> Graham and Anna Ritchie cast doubt on this interpretation noting that there is no archaeological evidence for the claim,<ref>Ritchie 1981, pp. 51–52</ref> although a Neolithic "low road" connects Skara Brae with the chambered tomb of Maeshowe, passing near Brodgar and Stenness.<ref>Castleden 1987, p. 117</ref> Low roads connect Neolithic ceremonial sites throughout Britain.

Conservation and access

The site is a scheduled monument and was included in the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" World Heritage Site in 1999.

World Heritage status

The Heart of Neolithic Orkney includes, in addition to the Ring of Brodgar, Maeshowe, Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites. It is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, whose 'Statement of Significance' for the site begins:

The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with the mastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation...The Ring of Brodgar is the finest known truly circular late Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone ring and a later expression of the spirit which gave rise to Maeshowe, Stenness and Skara Brae<ref>"The Heart of Neolithic Orkney". Historic Scotland. Retrieved on 6 April 2025</ref>

Access

Access at the Ring of Brodgar, especially to the inner ring, poses conservation issues. Site management has included periods of partial site closure, required to allow areas of footpath to recover.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cultural impact

The Ring of Brodgar features in Kathleen Fidler's 1968 novel The Boy with the Bronze Axe; here, it is depicted in a midsummer ceremony in which a lamb is sacrificed. In Fidler's story, women are forbidden from entering the Ring, which is a male-only space.Template:Sfn

In Troika Games 2001 title Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, the Ring of Brodgar appears in the town of Roseborough and is pivotal to the plot.

The Ring of Brodgar is featured in the 2024 film The Outrun.

Notes

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References

External links

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