The Great Sacred Monuments of Stenness

A newspaper report (“Orkney Herald” July 16th 1861) says that besides the Stones of Stenness (then used for the Ring of Brodgar) there were other stones still standing, both singletons and pairs, as well as the remains of a nearly destroyed circle (presumably the Comet Stone site). A week later Farrar reports that the two tumuli at the entrances to the Ring of Brodgar originally supported structures because of the amount of earthfast stone about their bases, though burial mounds encircled by stones are known from elsewhere. However only animal bones were found, and these from their upper parts.