The Barnhouse Stone, Stenness

The Barnhouse Stone is a solitary monolith, standing approximately half a mile (700m) to the south-east of the Standing Stones o' Stenness.

Standing in a field near Maeshowe, and clearly visible from the main Kirkwall to Stromness road, upon first glance the lichen covered stone looks fairly insignificant - especially when compared to the Stenness giants to the north-west.

Appearances, however, can be deceptive.

The Barnhouse Stone is intriguing because it appears to be perfectly aligned to the entrance of the Maeshowe chambered cairn, approximately 700 metres to the north-east.

Local man Magnus Spence first recorded this alignment in 1893. Then, in 1952, ex-provost Peter C. Flett OBE noted that:

"The alignment formed with this Barnhouse Stone and the long passage of Maeshowe seemed to have peculiar significance, and was too remarkable to be merely accidental."

Mr Flett suggested an alignment between the Barnhouse Stone, the Watchstone and the Ring o' Brodgar.

He remarked that the two standing stones formed a straight line with the centre of the Brodgar ring, in a north-easterly, south-westerly direction.

This line, it was suggested, pointed to the rising position of the sun at Beltane - May 1.

Standing just over three metres tall (10 ft), at the midwinter solstice, when the last rays of the dying sun shine through Maeshowe's entrance passage, the sun shines directly over the top of the Barnhouse monolith.

It has now been shown that the centre axis of Maeshowe's inner entrance passage is directly aligned with the centre of the Barnhouse Stone.

The Barnhouse Stone, with Maeshowe in the background.

From Maeshowe, the line travels out to strike Ward Hill on Hoy at a place where the sun set 22 days before and after the midwinter solstice.

This three-week period is referred to by archeoastronomers, such as Alexander Thom, as a megalithic month - a sixteenth of a year.

Whether this alignment meant that the stone was put in place at the same time Maeshowe was built or was a later addition, erected to mark the alignment, is not clear.

The discovery of a hole to the rear of Maeshowe that would have housed another stone seems to indicate that the Barnhouse Stone did have some function in the ritual use of the chambered cairn.

What makes this phenomenon interesting is the fact that if, as has been suggested, the Barnhouse Stone was an outlier to the Stenness Ring and a part of the ceremonial complex, we have a definite link between the ceremonies held at the stone rings and in Maeshowe.