suave harv
Ruined circles. . still worth visiting on fantastic days like this. June 2005.
Image credit: suave harv
A long distance shot, from a hedge quarter of a mile up the road, the Maidens can be clearly seen in the middle.
Image credit: suave harv
This is the poem featured on the cafe wall, inside the visitor’s centre. I love it!
Skara Brae by George Mackay Brown
Here in our village in the west
We are little regarded.The lords of tilth and loch
Are Quarrying (we hear)
Great stones to make a stone circleIn the last of the snow
A great one died
In that stone hollow in the east.
A winter sunset
Will touch his mouth. He carries
A cairngorm on his cold finger
To the country of the dead.They come here from Birsay
To take our fish for taxes. Otherwise
We are left in peace
With our small fires and pots.Will it be a morning for fishermen?
The sun died in red flames
Then the night swarmed with stars, like fish.The sea gives and takes. The sea
Devoured four houses one winter.Ask the old one to make a clay lamp
The ripening sun
May be pleased with the small flame, at-plough-time.
Get an OS map, and there’s a field called ‘long field’ between two lanes going toward farm buildings. Pull off the lane that runs parallel with the Cashel River. Park in this field through the (hopefully open) gate at 405266. And walk up the field, it’s a long field (duh!) and stretches towards the field in which the stones are. When you get to the top of ‘long Field’ keep walking. The stones appear on the left.
Well worth the trouble, and it’s not that far a walk. . honest!
Two stones, no more than 3 foot high nestle by a hedge. Dig a bit in the undergrowth and you’ll find a third. It’s right by the road, so if you want to ‘up’ your stone circle count. . it’s easy to find.
Callanish itself is on the right of the stone, and Cnoc Ceann a’Gharraidh can be seen on the left.
Image credit: suave harv
