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"A part of the World Heritage Site - Heart of Neolithic Orkney" Click on Images to see a larger version
engagements by holding hands through the gap. It was also associated with other ceremonies and believed to have magical power. In December 1814 Captain W. Mackay, a recent immigrant to Orkney who owned farmland in the vicinity of the stones, decided to remove them on the grounds that local people were trespassing and disturbing his land by using the stones in rituals. He started in December 1814 by smashing the "Odin Stone". This caused outrage and he was stopped after destroying one other stone and toppling another. The toppled stone was re-erected in 1906 along with some inaccurate reconstruction inside the circle. However, even the few stones that have survived are said to create a powerful atmosphere hinting at the distant past. As to the destroyed stone, apparently the part with the hole was used as the pivot for a horse mill but was destroyed after World War II. It is sited on a promontory at the south bank of the stream that joins the southern ends of the sea loch 'Loch of Stenness' and the freshwater loch 'Loch of Harray'. The name, pronounced stane-is, comes from Old Norse meaning 'stone headland'. The stream is now bridged, but at one time was crossed by a stepping stone causeway, and the Ring of Brodgar lies about 1.2 km (3/4 mile) away to the north-west, across the stream and near the tip of the isthmus formed between the two lochs. Maes Howe chambered cairn is about 1.2 km (3/4 mile) to the east of the Standing Stones of Stenness and several other Neolithic monuments also lie in the vicinity, suggesting that this area had particular importance. Information on alignments of some other nearby stones can be found at http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/maeshowe/standing.html. Click on Images to see a larger version
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