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There's speculation on other web sites as to whether the remains at Lawrence Field are actually of Neolithic origin. Their focus seems to rest on the one standing stone on the southern footpath being the single remaining standing stone of a possible circle. On my visit I walked west of that stone and thought that another collection of stones could potentially be the circle, especially as the accompanying structures seemed to tie in with the OS map reference to a 'settlement'. I'm writing up my field notes here so as to help people who're figuring out the truth from the speculation at Lawrence Field; there are many potential standing stones there that can easily lead you into false assumptions; I don't offer my speculations as any kind of claim to truth, as I could easily have been deceived by a random placing of stones, but this is what seemed plausible to me when I was there:
'This is potentially the stone circle in Lawrence Field. 5 stones in an oval (13 paces across), a couple at the centre (flat on the ground; a hollow area beneath them, special stones placed in there recently). All the circle stones are very low; 2 thin and side-on; one completely flat on the ground (but I'm presuming from its shape it was another flat stone standing side-on to the circle). A stone wall, mostly covered by earth/gorse, passes beside it. Which doesn't leave a lot to see of the stones and there isn't a particularly marvellous view of the landscape; but you can see a natural tower of stones poised atop an edge on one skyline [Mother Cap Stone]. I can imagine wanting to see that from your circle.
Off to the west, remains of a round structure whose walling seems too well preserved to be Neolithic. However there are two small cairn-like structures beneath a lot of gorse/earth and remains of two walls, one of which often uses upright stones.
Directly south of the presumed circle, toward the river, remains of three structures in a southward row. One appears to be a long cairn. A second is a similar elongated oval shape, but a little wider, and its a walled enclosed area. A third is a small round structure, buried under gorse.
Directions:
To get here I took the path going south from opposite the 'Surprise View' car park on the A5187 (not far from Fox Houses, near to Sheffield) and half way to the trees found a smaller path heading west.
There's a lot of potential standing stones in Lawrence Field to confuse you.'
1 May 2002
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A circle of 10 short stones, most of them not initially visible from some angles. Surrounded immediately by a low earth/pebble bank. Covered by gorse except for a path around, paths to the centre and the centre. a recessed circle at the centre and some small stones, making a fire place, though who knows how old this is. 180 degrees of fine view; weather systems traipsing over peaks & troughs; deep greys, light blues, bright whites; warm sunny days suddenly ripped apart; boxed in, poured upon. The most upright stone has a flat face facing inward and a ledge cleanly carved out of it about an index fingers' length deep, as though a seat but its too small to be. Letters carved in that face (FR**), an enormously deep 'FU' in olde English type in its top; 3, maybe 4 cup marks in its outer face. There are other stones with a 'U', 'FU' and 'FU100*'. most stones have fallen or are in the process of doing so.
A few feet away is the ruins of the large Eyam Moor Barrow. Made of stones, of which there are many left; hinting at inner structure but its hard to tell. An obtrusive Ministry of Works sign uprooted from beside and placed at one end amongst the stones of the barrow itself.
1 May 2002
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'strong, solid, rock against the clear air alone, within the wind, the land stretched far and long to view, islands and the sea. bejeweled in quartz and lichen
- 8 March 2002
this tilting stone looks down upon Tingwall airport. its probably just possible to see the other standing stone across the valley and voe from here as you can just see the tip of this stone from there if you know what you're looking for
directions: near Whiteness, off-of the road toward Tingwall and Lerwick. adjacent to the hotel, leave the road and walk toward the top of the hill'
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'tall flat slab. slap! at the top of its hillock visible from so many places, so many seas, islands and so far away. in this way, better placed than most for visibility, and singularly purposeful at being tall and seen as its so thin and straight. cock shaped. how does a stone of such bold and simple shape come about?'
- 22 March 2002
directions: visible from parts of Lerwick and from the ferry over. from 'A Guide to Prehistoric and Viking Shetland' by Noel Fojut: "Heogan road, then road past Keldabister, left onto track and follow this N"
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A maniacal huge lump of red granite (1.6m high), almost nothing in common with other Shetland stones save for its one smooth face, angled toward the sky like a transmitter (facing west), a splodgy mess of lumpyness. It is propped up by a couple of stones and I presume other than this this stone hasn't been moved anywhere by people, its just too huge and unshapely. You can prominantly see Ronas Hill from here and its cairn, but this stones' flat face isn't facing it. It is stood atop a rounded pinnacle that is itself halfway up a steep hillside and bcos it has this hill at its back and despite its size looking at it from below, like from the road, you have to know where it is to see it. There's a stone beside it, flat faced, thin and oblong that is perhaps a fallen accompanying standing stone.
Directions: where the A970 and A9075 meet (the Hillswick junction), cross the smaller of the two sandy lochs beside that junction (three swans upon that loch) at its southern end (the other sides a boggy nightmare) and walk up the hill.
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- cairn (with chamber and cist):
narrow line of coast, you can see both sides from up here.
a string of islands in the sea
white margins, wavering, surround them.
wind, wind, wind.
sitting on a ledge of a perculiarly steep short slope
a burial cairn; below & unmistakeable, across plateau
at the edge of the noisy sea, ruins:
a congregation of stones amid brown-yellow grasses.
- Benie Hoose:
a thrilling site. a Stanydale('temple')-like structure. really well preserved. not only the building with alcoves (as at Stanydale) but a rounded structure at its front. far more extensive than any other Shetland building I've seen other than at Stanydale. appears to have a kindof alter, a flat ledge above the main room (upon which there's a slaughtered sheep). small standing stone just uphill from it, possibly aligned with other way down close to the Stones of Yoxie.
either a stream (more an assemblage of water) rises at its centre, or its water gathering bcos this is excavated from the peat and the land around is higher.
by a trick of the shape of the land you can't see this building from the burial cairn above
- Stones of Yoxie
a) remains of a building (on surprisingly level ground, but perhaps thats the architects' doing), not quite of traditional Shetland clover leaf plan; comprising an entrance room; long passage; two, maybe three chambers, one leading to another
b) short standing stone on two sides (one of which I'd presumed aligned with the Benie Hoose but maybe it isn't)
c) small round cairns on two sides
d) a line of stones to one side
e) further on, a wall, that twists around then heads directly to the cliff edge
180 degrees of broiling sea and nothing else; islands; sky; moorland
further away back to the southwest there's two more stone alignments, one about 50' and the other twice as long parallel and not straight with the cliff edge then heading straight down right to the cliff edge; and there are scant remains indicating it may have begun at one cliff edge, travelled up then around in an arc and down again to the cliff edge.
a little further on again there's another very short alignment using much larger stones.
and on again a possible short standing stone, with quite a tilt, beside other stones, fairly close to the cliff edge
- 3 April 2002
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'what a highlight, this stone is absolutely enormous. roughly 5' by 6' square and 10' tall. balanced by a pile of small rocks at its base. broad and oddly shaped; gargantuan compared with the other stones in this area. it seems not to fit in with those other themes going on on this island [except for the standing stone at Yamna Field, Gluss].
overlooking Busta Voe, the town of Brae, out toward the open sea (which you can't see), looking upon so many peaks.
a smaller pyramidal stone, a couple of feet tall, just downhill from it'
-12 March 2002
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Stanydale's magnitude, awe inspiring. when we visited a few days ago we froze in snow and wind, today the sound of the winds merely a pleasant backdrop as I lie in the grass in here, the clearest blue sky overhead and a bright afternoion sun. the walls are built from stocky boulders, and smooth, mostly; they walls feel so rigid; and upto about 15' thick. they were certainly meant to remain. so many stones must have been moved to make this place. I marvel at the thought of the same building perhaps being used for two thousand years.
(its a shame the entrance has been bastardised with a wooden gate).
collections of standing stones, one lot at each side, aligned, only one of which is in a circular shape.
apart from, like, StoneHenge and Avebury, one of the grandest sites I've been to (but I haven't been to many)
-Stanydale 'temple', 15 March 2002
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overwhelmingly huge. stunningly huge. arched outward, and inward; a head, or transmitter. I believe this is Britain's most northerly standing stone; a beacon. not vertical, but angled backward, facing upward. an overweight belly. a couple of large stones around its back. surrounded in part by a low raised earth structure (skirt?); another of which, almost complete, only a few yards over. the stone is visible from the sea, in what, for this island, is a tight valley, which peters into nothing, rising quickly, into an open plain of strange landscape, huge boulders layn about upon the gorse. the largest of which, stood on end. facing northeast-southwest (beside the road). pointing toward another such stone a little further down (or across) that possibly stood, now fallen (you can see space underneath part of it).
beautiful blue and green stones lie all around, the rubble left from building the road.
on closer inspection, the rabble of stones on the plain, mostly aren't a rabble atall but a large circle marked out and curves and a trail of them leading off to the lake; an exciting trail to follow and map out. there are other circular shapes on the sides of rising land around. maybe they're just fields.
massacred sheep everywhere.
-27 March 2002
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'like a tree trunk. stone like like old wood. and huge cracks from bottom to top add to its weight of years. this huge trunk reaches nearly straight to the sky. views of 270degrees of seas, inlets, isles. whether intended as such or not this stone is alter-like. faces east-west; flat side east. (pity its right beside the road).
all the stone that seems to have come out of the ground here has the same wood effect, and judging from the stone used in the walls around, appears to split readily into small versions of the elongated standing stone.
The other stone, a couple of fields down and across to the right (assuming the one I found was the right one), is only a wee slip of a stone, about 2.5 feet tall. stands between furrows in a cultivated field, seemingly fallow at the moment, on a small untouched patch, surrounded by smaller stones and other odd detritus. by its size, barely believable as a standing stone.
there possible remains of building footings further down the same field as the larger standing stone, of unknown age.'
- 26 March 2002
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