Dwarfie Stane

The Dwarfie Stane lies in the glen below Ward Hill on the road to Rackwick on Hoy: a huge block of sandstone hollowed out into a tomb between 3500 and 2500 BC, before metal tools, and thought to be the only wholly rock-cut prehistoric tomb in the British Isles. A narrow passage leads into a main chamber with two small cells, each with a squared doorway, one with a stone pillow. The great blocking stone lies in the heather beside the entrance, and someone once tried to break in through the roof. The cells, too small to stand in, gave rise to legends of dwarfs, and Walter Scott made it the home of the dwarf Trolld in The Pirate. Hugh Miller carved his initials inside in 1846, and in 1850 Major Mouncey, a British spy, left a line in Persian script: I have sat two nights and have learned patience. A boardwalk crosses the boggy moor from the roadside parking in about ten minutes.