The Dwarfie Stane Chambered Tomb View all content for The Dwarfie Stane

Dwarfie Stane, Hoy Friday 16/8/96 We were up at 6:45am in our caravan at Durrsidale, near Evie, to get to the ferry terminal at Houtan for the 7:45am ferry- drove like a rally-driver-madman-possessed (which I'm not keen on!) to get there on time. It was a beautiful crossing on the 'Hoy Head'. We got to Linksness and decided to drive past the Dwarfie Stane first, which was an extremely difficult thing to do, and go see the Old Man beforehand. The weather was okay til we got about half way up the island and then a blanket of fog came down and stayed down! The Old Man was fab and I would recommend it if on Hoy to see the Dwarfie Stane. The cliffs around it are amazingly high and not for the faint-hearted. Anyways- back to the car after our very wet outing and back down to try and find the Stane. It's not the most obvious as most of the other large stanes/rocks/boulders that have fallen from Dwarfie Hamars all look very similar. However once in the car park there is a path straight (ish) to the right Stane. This is a really nice tomb cut from a solid piece of rock- it must have taken an age! I had my souterrain/tomb kit with me (ie- torch, candle lanterns, waterproof matches) but it's not really needed for this one as the chambers are just big enough to sit in. I carefully lit some candle lanterns anyway to add to the atmosphere and spent a very quiet, peaceful and contemplative time inside. Hoy is a cracking island and has some beautifully named places on it- just have a look at the OS map- Candle of the Sale, Summer of Hoy, Burn of the White Horse, Geo of the Light.

Posted by Martin 28th August 2001ce

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