Ring of Brodgar

People

• C

  Captain Frederick Thomas

  Royal Navy officer (HM cutter Woodlark) who made the first formal survey of the ring in 1849

• A

  Aubrey Burl

  Archaeologist who classified the ditch as a Class II henge and noted its diameter matched Avebury and Newgrange in 'megalithic yards'

• 

  Alexander Thom

  Proposer of the controversial 'megalithic yard' unit and of the theory that Brodgar served as a lunar observatory

Cultural influences

• The ring is the only major henge and stone circle in Britain that is an almost perfect circle, ranking with Avebury and Stonehenge among the greatest such sites; at 104 m in diameter it is the third largest stone circle in the British Isles.

• It forms part of one of the densest concentrations of Neolithic archaeology in Britain, sited deliberately within a broader ceremonial landscape between the Lochs of Stenness and Harray.

• Historic Environment Scotland's Statement of Significance calls it 'the finest known truly circular late Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone ring', a later expression of the spirit that gave rise to Maeshowe, Stenness and Skara Brae.

Connections

• 

  Standing Stones of Stenness

  Neighbouring circle-henge to the south-east, part of the same World Heritage Site

• 

  Maeshowe

  Chambered tomb to the east, connected to the wider ceremonial complex (and by a Neolithic 'low road')

• 

  Ness of Brodgar

  Ceremonial and settlement complex between the two lochs, under ongoing excavation by Orkney College

• S

  Skara Brae

  Neolithic settlement in the same World Heritage Site; a 'low road' connects it past Brodgar and Stenness to Maeshowe

• H

  Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site

  Inscribed 1999; the ring is one of its principal monuments

Discovery & excavation

In culture

• The ring features in Kathleen Fidler's 1968 novel The Boy with the Bronze Axe, depicted in a midsummer ceremony.

• It appears in Troika Games' 2001 title Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, in the town of Roseborough, where it is pivotal to the plot.

What to look for

• The standing stones themselves — the ring originally had up to 60 stones, of which 27 remained standing at the end of the 20th century; the tallest stand at the south and west.

• The 'Comet Stone' — an outlying stone to the south-east of the ring.

• The encircling rock-cut ditch, up to 3 m deep and 9 m wide, with two opposing entrances on the north-west and south-east.

• Runic carvings left by Nordic peoples on several of the stones, including the name 'Bjorn', a small cross, and an anvil.

Standing there

• The ring stands on a narrow isthmus between two great lochs — the Loch of Stenness to the south and the Loch of Harray to the north — on gently rising ground with wide open views, so water lies on either side and the stones read sharply against the Orkney skyline with wind and the cry of waterbirds all around.
• It is the third-largest stone circle in Britain and an almost perfect circle: walking its huge ring you move along the encircling bank and ditch past tall thin slabs of weathered flagstone spaced around the wide grassy interior, the whole enclosure big enough that the far side feels distant.
• From inside, the surrounding Neolithic landscape is visible across the lochs — the Stones of Stenness, the mound of Maeshowe and the Ness of Brodgar complex all sit within sightlines — so the place feels like the centre of a wider ceremonial arena rather than an isolated monument.
• When raised, between roughly 2500 and 2000 BC, the circle would have been a dramatic skyline silhouette approached across the narrow neck of land between the waters — gatherings here would have unfolded in the open, exposed to the same wind, light and reflective loch surfaces that still dominate the site.
• The position between two lochs, with sightlines linking it to the other great monuments, suggests water, visibility and movement through the landscape were part of the intended experience — arriving along the isthmus and entering the ring would have been a deliberate, staged passage rather than a casual approach.