By Bernie Bell
Where in Orkney is this stone?
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle
The Watch Stone Stenness
The Watch Stone, Stenness
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Bernie’s Quiz: Where’s that stone,No. 5
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The Watch Stone Stenness
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I must admit, this one is cheating a bit. It’s a magnificent stone, and I believe it to have been standing, at one time. Just a thought, to conjure with?
Can’t complain though – two for the price of one – yesterdays is in the background.
near Barnhouse Settlement
does it have its own name?
Not as far as I know, Christian, and I’m not even sure how much it’s seen as possibly having been a standing stone. If you’ve seen it, what do you think?
And, here’s part of an exchange with Euan MacKie ( if you’re not aware of Euan’s work – it’s well worth looking at). Euan’s bit, follows my bit as I refer to his bit, in my bit………….
“Oh, and it makes me wonder”.
Me, to Euan…….
“Now then
This is entirely off the top of my head, no actual measured, reason for this, at all………………
In Barnhouse Neolithic ‘village’, there’s a stone, which has fallen over. You will have seen it, no doubt. It’s over, towards the right hand side of the structures, a bit outside the ‘tidied up’ bit, more towards the lumpy bits which are structures, but which are left to be tunneled by rabbits!
Do you know the stone that I mean? When I first saw it, I wondered why it hadn’t been raised. It’s obviously a ‘standing stone’, and it must be possible to assess where it may have stood,or even work out precisely where it stood.
So, here’s the point I’m making……………I would say, that this is obviously a significant stone, one of the series of standing stones which aren’t part of a circle. Stones which serve an individual purpose, the Barnhouse stone, the Watchstone, the Comet stone, etc. I thought it would be a very good idea, to raise it, and to see what it might line up with, and see if any lines of light ‘clipped’ it, at any time. So, when I read your paragraph, below, it came into my head, that it might be the right stone to act as an indicator, for the Cuilags, which you mention?
As I said, I have no idea whether this would fit, or not. It’s just an idea.
Maybe purists would say that we shouldn’t raise the ones which have fallen, but, why not, if we can work out where they used to stand? It could be illuminaitong, for further alignments. Maybe.
The Hoy horizon? I go on, and on, and on about how much Hoy matters, overlooking everything.
What do you think? Could that stone, be the missing indicator? I’m sure that it was significant, and was placed there for a reason, as they all are/were. It would be good, to see it raised again.
Bernie”
What Euan had written to me
“Further more the right slope of Cuilags marks sunset one on eighth of a year before and after the solstice, at about Nov, 2nd and Feb, 2nd. These of course are the dates of the old Celtic festivals of Samhain and Imbolc. Unfortunately there isn’t an indicator stone towards Cuilags now but the whole Hoy horizon makes sense as a series of accurate markers for five points of the prehistoric solar calendar, and Maeshowe’s position must have been carefully selected to take advantage of them. Of course only the priesthood would have known these fine details; the midwinter sun shining down the passage was just for show, as at Newgrange.”
Me, wittering at Euan again – he’s another patient man……….
“Going back to the indicator stones………………
It occurred to me, that, if the Barnhouse Stone, is an indicator stone for Ward Hill, on Hoy, and I had the idea that the stone which has fallen over, in Barnhouse ‘village’ , could be an indicator stone for the Cuilags on Hoy, that would work very well. Considering their positions in relation to each other. I was thinking, look at the Barnhouse Stone, and it’s relation to Maes Howe, and it’s relation to Ward Hill, then look at the ‘other’ Barnhouse Stone ( let’s call it the Village Stone), and it’s relation to the ‘Big Building ‘ in the Village, and it’s possible relation to the Cuilags, and the relation of the stones, and places, to each other? What do you think? To me, that forms a good pattern. I’m picturing standing somewhere in between, and slightly behind, the two sets of places and stones. Somewhere around Stenness church, maybe. Just an idea!”