THE RING OF BRODGAR, ORKNEY (SCOTLAND)

 

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 in Scotland. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Heart of Neolithic Orkney. These enigmatic stones are one of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in the British Isles. The Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge is an enormous ceremonial site in the dating back to the 3rd millennium BC.  The Ring of Brodgar comprises:

    A massive stone circle, originally consisting of 60 stones – 36 survive today

    At least 13 prehistoric burial mounds

    A large rock-cut ditch surrounding the stone circle

The Scottish geologist Hugh Miller, visiting in 1846, wrote that the stones ‘look like an  assemblage of ancient druids, mysteriously stern and invincibly silent and shaggy’.

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.

PENTRE IFAN, NEVERN, PEMBROKESHIRE, WALES

 

Pentre Ifan (Welsh for 'Ifan's village') is an ancient dolmen in the community and parish of Nevern, Pembrokeshire in Wales. It contains and gives its name to the largest and best preserved neolithic dolmen in Wales.

The Pentre Ifan monument is a scheduled monument and one of three Welsh monuments to receive legal protection under the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. Pentre Ifan’s sense of mystery is heightened by its surroundings and backdrop. Its outline neatly frames the Preseli Hills towering above, source of the famous Pembrokeshire ‘bluestones’ that went into the making of Stonehenge as well as Pentre Ifan itself.