Re: Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets Of Orkney | Forum

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Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets Of Orkney

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Dog in fog Jan 4, 2017 20:08:53

Replying to moss

I visited last year: I certainly had great interest in the history but personally experienced it from more of a spiritual bent on balance.

I'm not very knowledgeable and so this might be a stupid question, but I understand that 60 stones originally made the Ring of Brodgar, and 12 stones formed the Stones of Stenness circle. This made me think of 'time'. Is there any connection, does anyone know?

Thanks.

Will watch the prog when I visit Blighty!

tiompan Jan 4, 2017 21:00:04

Replying to Dog in fog

Hi DIF .

We don't really know how many stones there were at either site , the 12 and 60 are estimates .

12 is quite a common number , but just as the diameters vary so do the number of stones .Sometimes there are gaps ,sometimes they are contiguous . Depending on preservation , diameter and distance between stones you can anything from an original 4 at four posters lots of 5 and 6's to upper teens ,those with 11 may have originally had 12 , maybe not ,but those with 13 like Dromroe and Cairnwell ,Hatton etc clearly didn't .

Average diameters with like Rollright can have 80 where something bigger can have a lot less e.g. two of the Hurlers at approx 29 each .
Brodgar at much the same diameter as Avebury south had approx. twice the number .