Time has not been kind to the stones of Stenness and now only three of an original eleven stand together with the stump of a fourth stone. The stones are huge - they stand between four and five metres tall and even the stump is two metres in height.  Even in its present ruinous condition this is a stunning monument, however in its heyday it would have been magnificent.

The Stones of Stenness were once part of a great circle-henge.  The eleven stones stood inside a ditch of 6 metres width and 2 metres depth. Outside this ditch was a bank that may have stood up to two metres high. The ditch was dug into the sandstone bedrock and must have taken considerable effort to dig. Now picture what it must have been like to stand in the centre of the intact circle henge.
In its original state Stenness must have been truly awe inspiring and a real wonder of the megalithic world.



At the centre of the stone circle there stands a curious setting of three stones. Mistakenly re-erected as a dolmen in victorian times these stones actually formed a small cove and this seems to have been built in the configuration of a chamber in a chambered cairn.



The Stones of Stenness do not stand alone as the Watch Stone and Barnhouse stone stand a few hundred metres away. The ancient Skara Brae type settlement of Barnhouse is also close by.

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