STILL STANDING
STANDING STONES
4 The Guide to Scotland’s Islands
A visit to any of the standing stones, circles and brochs of the Hebrides and west coast will deepen your understanding of, and respect for, those who built their lives on the fringes of the Atlantic millennia before us, as Ailsa Sheldon finds
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n a world of instant online answers, there is something wonderful about historical mysteries that offer, as yet, no definitive explanation. One of the pleasures of visiting the Hebrides and the west coast is the chance to immerse yourself in a remote, windswept landscape and wonder about those who lived here thousands of years ago. Calanais (also often spelled as Callanish) may be the best known, but there's a wealth of fascinating archaeological sites that tell the story of ancient Scotland across the west coast and islands. Standing stones are the oldest monuments in Scotland, with sites found on Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull, Coll, Barra, Harris and, most prominently, Lewis. The Calanais standing stones (pictured) predate Stonehenge and are at least 5000 years old. These slabs of Lewisian gneiss are arranged in a cross shape with a circle at the centre, and there is evidence of 2000 years of ritual use. Near Calanais, there are other smaller standing stones and stone circles from the same era that attract fewer visitors, some signposted from the road. To visit Calanais without the crowds, get there first thing in the morning, or after 3pm when the tour buses leave. Theories abound on the purpose of standing stones. Many experts suggest they were astrological observatories used to track the movements of the sun and the stars, perhaps for ritual or religious purposes. We know
that some marked burial chambers. Like all good mysteries, with more answers come more questions and there is much still to know about these Neolithic megaliths. Brochs are unique to Scotland and are among the most advanced Iron Age constructions in Europe. Windowless dry-stone buildings in a tall ‘cooling tower’ shape, they feature stone steps spiralling between concentric inner and outer walls that provide access to upper floors, with smaller rooms entered from the central area. Archaeologists believe brochs had wooden floors and conical thatched roofs. We don’t know for sure what purpose brochs served, and usage may have changed over time depending on local politics – perhaps for refuge in tumultuous periods and storage in peacetime.
