Stanydale Temple

Stanydale Temple, in the moorland near Bixter, is the only truly megalithic structure surviving from prehistoric Shetland, built between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. A wall of great boulders, some weighing up to 300 kilograms, encloses an oval about 14 metres by 10, with alcoves in its inner face like bed recesses. It has the shape of a Neolithic Shetland house but twice the size. Post-holes show it had a great timber roof, and charcoal from one was North American spruce, probably driftwood. Charles Calder excavated it in 1949 and named it a temple after the Neolithic temples of Malta, a link now dismissed; with no domestic rubbish, only a polished stone knife and a pile of burnt sheep bones, it may have been a chieftain's hall or a meeting place. The walk in passes cairns and the sites of prehistoric houses. Follow the black and white poles from the small car park; the ground is very boggy, so wear boots.