The Ring Of Brodgar, on Mainland, Orkney
Scotland isn’t short of wow-inducing historic sites, but even on an already rich roster of wonders Orkney’s family of Neolithic monuments are a cut above. There’s the chambered cairn of Maes Howe, the massive standing stones of Stenness, the Neolithic village at Skara Brae – and this, the world-famous Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle with a diameter of 104 metres located within a ditch, or henge, a whopping 136 metres across.
It was snapped by Herald photographer Jamie Simpson in September 2017, a mere heartbeat ago when you consider the site’s mind-numbing antiquity. Many have. If the best guesses of the historians and archaeologists are correct the Ring Of Brodgar was constructed between 2500BC and 2000BC, though it has never been properly excavated so an exact date is hard to pin down. Nor is the significance it held for the Neolithic people of the islands properly understood. Clearly it had some sort of ceremonial function, but it may also have been used for some kind of planetary observation. Or perhaps all that recommended it was the natural beauty of the site, which sits on an isthmus, the Ness of Brodgar, separating the Loch of Stenness and the Loch of Harray. Along with the mystery and power of the place it’s the setting which strikes the visitor most forcefully today.