Hill o' Many Stanes

The Hill o' Many Stanes at Mid Clyth, just off the A99 near Lybster in Caithness, is a fan of about 200 small stones set in at least 22 rows running down the southern slope of a low hill. They were raised about 4,000 years ago, and who built them and why is still unknown: ideas include gatherings or ceremonies like those at stone circles, tracking the cycles of the sun and moon, or ordering the farming year. Most are thin slabs set with their faces across the rows and packed round the base with smaller stones, and packed hollows to the east show there were once more rows. It is the largest and best preserved of the multiple stone rows of Caithness and eastern Sutherland, a kind of monument otherwise found only in southern Brittany and on Dartmoor. Reviewers call it a quick stop on a single-track road, with the stones knee-high in the heather, and ask visitors to keep off the rows.