Stackrue Broch

Carry on up the Brodgar road past Buckan farm and you could easily miss the small sign on the right pointing out the Lyking road . No great distance from Lyking ( why does the road take such a strange turn there when it could easily have kept straight on it seems ) is the Stackrue site on the right . Oh I thought , another scrappy broch remnant . And so it appeared as I approached , only when I came up to it was the ruined splendour revealed as the other end a broch corner shone with large intact blocks still standing several courses high . Around it runs a large deep ditch possibly similar to that at the Broch of Gurness . At the resplendent end are a few standing stones and at one point against the bank several largish slabs . The rest looks like your average (?post- ) broch remains .
That a round steatite plate with a partial runic inscription was discovered here shows that like the Broch of Gurness and The Howe occupation continued till Viking times , explaining why the broch wall remains stand out from the rest .