The Ring Of Brodgar

The Ring of Brodgar is the finest known truly circular late Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone ring. the Ring of Brodgar was built between 2500 BC and 2000 BC. The stone ring was built in a complete circle, 104 metres wide, and originally contained 60 megaliths. Today, only 27 of these stones remain. In 1792, there were 18 standing stones, with eight lying on the ground. But by 1815, two more stones had been toppled, leaving only 16 standing stones. Then, in 1854, there were only 13 stones still standing, ten complete, but fallen, stones and parts of 13 broken stones. The Ring of Brodgar was taken into state care in 1906 and, two years later, most of the fallen stones were placed back to their original place. Since then two stones have suffered lightning strikes, leaving 27 standing today. The Ring of Brodgar was originally surrounded by a deep circular ditch. This ditch remains clearly visible today, but is a lot smaller that what it was. The ditch has a diameter of 123 metres (403.6 ft) and was originally three metres (9.8 ft) deep and five metres (16.4 ft) wide. today you can still see were the ditch would have been but it is not as deep but twice as wide because of erosion. Because of this the ditch is now about 10 metres wide. However you can still walk across the cause way into the centre of the ring like they did when it was first built.