<< Our Photo Pages >> Mark Stone of Gaitnip - Standing Stone (Menhir) in Scotland in Orkney
Submitted by howar on Thursday, 03 June 2004 Page Views: 4194
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Mark Stone of GaitnipCountry: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Nearest Town: Kirkwall
Map Ref: HY458048 Landranger Map Number: 6
Latitude: 58.927021N Longitude: 2.943124W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Standing Stone in Orkney
Coming from Kirkwall you will come across an unmarked isolated set of (minor) stately home type gates and this is, I guess the long and winding road that leads to Gaitnip. The site is marked beside the track behind Gaitnip coming from this direction. Alternatively I chose to avoid habitation and go down the track that runs down from alongside Works. This way you have to be fit because of the various kinds of gate and fence along the way. Somewhere on the left before you reach the burn there used to be a cairn called Sir Hugh's Seat (HY456060). Coming up the hill there is a dogleg that goes to the right. Inside this junction is what looks for all the world like a grassed-over broch's remains but CANMORE only has this as where the OS used to show an unroofed structure (Burn of Deepdale HY452057). Next up a set of small portable fences lies across the way - just managed to step over them with care. After this the track is blocked by agricultural stuff, but fortunately the field alongside is not fenced there if a trifle muddy. This track ends at a crack in the earth going down to the sea, and you turn right here. Along the field edge is a broad and deeply rutted trackway. From here you look across three fields to Gaitnip, and the middle one of those on your right is marked on the map as Mark Stone of Gaitnip. This is at HY448061, the present TMA grid reference of HY446061 is actually the lower boundary of the field beneath this. Regardless I could find no standing stones anywhere apart from the very small ones that were part of the (mostly) turfed-over drystone walls and a possible set of short wall ends. This absence is likely enough why there is no more info on the site. But all may not be lost. For a third of the way through the first field a short bridge runs across the track (at HY458048) and apart fron the innermost end it is comprised of two slabs of stone over four inches deep. I think one or both of these are the Mark Stone of Gaitnip re-used. One is 1.3m x 1.2m and the other 0.9m x 1.9m. This isn't the first of these (?foot) bridges in Orkney, often quite far away from habitation and of incongruously huge blocks. It strikes me that standing stones are being re-used simply because they were close at hand, I don't think any farmer would willingly cart megaliths all that way out, a waste of time and energy otherwise.
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