may have been of similar character; and the rude Norsemen who possessed themselves of the Orkney Islands in the ninth century, found far less difficulty in adapting the Temple of Stennis to the shrine of Thor, than the Protestants of the sixteenth century had to contend with when they appropriated the old Cathedral of St. Magnus to the rites of Presbyterian worship. It is opposed to all probability that the Great Circle of Stennis, with its grand but rude monoliths, was the work of Norse rovers of the ninth century, long after the Christian missionaries of Iona had waged successful war with the Pagan creed of the native Orcadians. But the question of Scandinavian origin is put to rest by evidence of a direct and conclusive character. Professor Munch of Christiania, who visited this country in 1849, with a view to investigate the traces of Norwegian intercourse with Scotland, was gratified by the discovery that the name of Havardsteigr, which was conferred on the scene of Earl Havard's slaughter by his nephew, about the year 970, is still applied among the peasantry to the promontory of Stennis: the Stones of which we may well believe were grey with the moss of centuries ere the first Norwegian prow touched the shores of Pomona.' No direct reference to Stennis occurs in the Orkneyinga Saga, but the remarkable passage referred to is to be found in that of Olaf Trygvesson, where it is said :—

1 The name Stennis, of Norwegian origin, was obviously the apposite description suggested to the first Scandinavian voyagers by the appearance of the singular tongue of land, crowned by its megalithic circle; but the death of Earl Havard, as mentioned in the Northern Sagas, conferred on it new associations and a corresponding name. Professor Munch, whose natural bias as a Norwegian might have inclined him to claim for his countrymen the erection of the Great Scottish Circle, remarks, in a letter to me:- —“Stennis is the old Norn Steinsnes, that is, 'the promontory of the stones;' and that name it bore already when Hávard fell, in the beginning of the island being Scandinavian. This shows that the Scandinavian settlers found the stones already standing ;-in other words, that the standing-stones belonged to the population previous to the Scandinavian settlement."

VOL. I.

L

"Havard was then at Steinsnes, in Rossey. There was meeting and battle about Havard, and it was not long ere the Jarl fell. The place is now called Havardsteigr." It was so called in the tenth century, and so, Mr. George Petrie writes me, it is still occasionally named by the peasantry at the present day.

A few examples of remarkable megalithic structures of the Scottish mainland may be noted here. Careful and minute accounts have already been furnished of those of Inverness-shire by Mr. George Anderson in the Archaologia Scotica; and of those of Aberdeenshire, Argyleshire, and other Scottish districts, in a series of illustrated papers in the Archæologia. The varieties apparent in their grouping and structure are such as may well justify the conclusion that, instead of being the temples of a common faith, they are more probably the ruins of a variety of edifices designed in different ages for diverse purposes, and it may be even for the rites of rival creeds. The temple group at Leuchar, in the parish of Skene, Aberdeenshire, consists of a circle measuring internally thirty-four feet in diameter, composed of eight large stones disposed at regular intervals. In the centre of this another circle is formed of smaller stones, measuring about thirteen feet in diameter, and around it six smaller stone circles are disposed, two of them touching one another, and the remainder separated by regular intervals. At a short distance from this group, nine other circles occur, similar to the smaller ones, and two large cairns occupy commanding sites in the neighbourhood. Other examples of combinations of circles somewhat resembling this have been noted; and many of the larger ones have a stone laid flatways in the circumference of the circle, usually designated the altar stone. Concentric circles

1 Archæol. Scot. vol. iii. p. 211.

* Archæologia, vol. xxii. p. 55; vol. xxv. p. 614, etc.

are still more common. The great temple or Clachan of Inches, situated about two miles south of Inverness, the largest and most entire in that part of the country, consists of two circles, the inner one of which is composed of twenty-eight stones, and measures about forty feet in diameter. The outer circle is now only partially traceable. Fifteen stones remain, including one nine feet in height above ground, and the diameter measures above seventy feet. Another remarkable group occurs about half-a-mile eastward from a stone avenue near the farm of Milltown of Culloden, which may possibly have been once connected with it. Three concentric circles are nearly united to an adjoining one which encloses a group of five cairns, or what might be more accurately described as one gigantic cruciform cairn. The contents of this singular structure would probably amply repay the archæologist for the labour and cost of exploration. A

FIG. 7.-Leys Funicular Rod of Gold.

funicular rod or tore of gold was dug up within the great circle of Leys, in the same district, in 1824, and was produced at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland as a golden sceptre or rod of office. It is engraved here from a cast taken at the time; but when found it appears to have been more perfect. It measured twenty-two inches long, and was hooked at both ends; but one of the terminal hooks, broken off by the plough, was retained when the other portions were given up as treasure-trove.1

The latest if not the only unquestionable evidence

1 Inverness Courier, March 13, 1851.

we possess of the use of the Stone Circles is not as religious temples, but as courts of law and battlerings, wherein the duel or judicial combat was fought; though this doubtless had its origin in the invariable union of the priestly and judicial offices in a primitive state of society. The several concentric circles so frequently characterizing them, add to the probability of their adaptation to the purpose of judicial or deliberative assemblies. Such is one of the most common marks of the Law Tings of Orkney and Shetland, and of the Isle of Man. "Not unfrequently the fences of a ting were concentric: the intent of which was to preserve among the different personages of the ting a proper distinction of rank. The central area was always occupied by the laugman, and those who stood with him ;' and the outer spaces by the laugrettmen, out of whom the duradom was selected, the contending parties, and the compurgators." Mr. George Petrie has called my attention to several evidences of this in relation to the Orkney circles; and no less remarkable proofs appear in various chartularies and other authentic records, showing at how early a period all ideas of association with the rites of Pagan superstition had been lost. Thus in the Aberdeen Chartulary a notice occurs of a court held "apud stantes lapides de Rane en le Garuiach," on the 21 May 1349, when William de Saint Michael was summoned to answer for his forcible retention of certain ecclesiastical property;2 and again in the Chartulary of Moray the Bishop of Moray is summoned, in the year 1380, to attend the court of Alexander, Lord of Regality of Badenoch, and son of Robert II., to be holden "apud le standand stanys de la Rathe de Kyngucy estir." Part

1 66

Hibbert on the Tings of Orkney and Shetland."--Archeol. Scot, vol. iii. p. 141.

2 Regist, Episcop. Aberdon, vol. i. p. 79.

of the business of the court was to inquire into the titles by which the Bishop held certain of his lands, and as he is summoned as a vassal, and had to protest against the proceedings, he is described as standing "extra circum."1

Megalithic groups and circles abound on many parts of the mainland as well as in the Western Isles, but nearly all are characterized by some peculiarity. Some are enclosed by a trench, others by a fosse; and frequently the space between the great stones is filled up by an earthen wall. In several districts in the south of Scotland single and double ovals are found; and fragments of ancient groups, more or less imperfect, are com

mon throughout the country. The woodcut represents an imposing group in the neighbourhood of Pitlochrie, Perthshire. One of the great level Highland moors stretches away beneath the eye, like a dark waveless lake, contrasting with the distant heights, among which Benvrackie rears its pyramidal summit to an elevation of upwards of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. Amid this wild Highland landscape the huge standingstones, grey with the moss of ages, produce a singularly 1 Regist. Episcop. Morav. p. 184.