The Ring of Brodgar

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RING OF BRODGAR
The Brother to Stenness

Figure 3: The Stones of Brodgar. Click for larger image by Orknet.

Figure 1: The Ring of Brodgar, Mainland, Orkney.

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Most stone circles in the British Isles are not actually true circles. The Ring of Brodgar is one of a small few that are true circles, of which Stonehenge is another member, as is Merry Maiden in Cornwall.

Dating this site has proven difficult, but has tentatively been dated to around 2,900 B.C., similar to the Stones of Stenness.

The Ring of Brodgar lies on a promontory between two lochs. The stone circle is quite complete, and is one of the biggest in Britain. The stones are set within a circular ditch 3.6m deep and 9m wide that was hewn out of the solid bedrock by the prehistoric constructors, consisting of around 4,700 cubic metres of rock quarried. The circle is 110 metres in diametre, and consists of only 27 standing stones where there was orginally 60. It is on a slope facing east, towards the rising sun, and the surrounding ditch and bank can still be made out, with entrances on the NW and SE.

Figure 2: An aerial view of the Ring of Brodgar.

As seen on the Stones of Stenness page, the Ring of Brodgar has a masculine spiritual energy connotation. This must be quite strong, for some accounts from women who visited the area state that they felt a strongly eerie feeling, and would not feel welcome there, and many thus would not go near the place. There are no such accounts from men for the Stones of Stenness, which has a feminine spiritual energy connotation, and

Figure 4: Panorama of the Ring of Brodgar at the Winter Solstice, around 2 am.

To the SE, 137 metres away, lies the Comet Stone, seen in figures 5 and 6. It stands on a low circular platform beside the stumps of what would appear to be two smaller, broken stones. The Comet Stone seems to have some grooves cut into it, purpose unknown, as seen in figure 6.

Figure 5: The Comet Stone, with the stumps of two smaller stones in the foreground. Photo courtesy of Orkneyjar. Click on image for a clear closeup.

Figure 6: The Comet Stone, with the grooves cut into it highlighted in red.

Figure 7: The Ring of Brodgar, with it's mystical connotation in full view.

While its use as a sort of observatory is unquestionable, the choice of location may well be at an energy hub of some kind. Perhap there is a sort of polarity within this vicinity, with one pole here, represented as a masculine spiritual energy, and the other pole across at Stenness, only a few kilometres away, as a feminine spiritual energy.

one could conclude that the energy is somehow amplified by the stones. As there are more remaining stones here in Brodgar, the energy is more amplified that at Stenness, where there remains only four stones from an original 12. But then, perhaps the energy here is stronger, as there were originally 60 stones, compared with only an original 12 at Stenness. Perhaps, then, the stones either contain the energy somehow, or focus it. The more energy there is here, the more stones are required to focus it. This is, of course, mere postulation. What we know for sure, is that some women do not find this place welcoming spiritually, but men do not have a problem with it, nor at Stenness, which has a feminine spiritual energy connotation.