<< Our Photo Pages >> Stanydale - Stone Circle in Scotland in Shetland

Submitted by LionsFan on Tuesday, 13 January 2015  Page Views: 23442

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Stanydale Alternative Name: Staneydale, Stanydale Neolithic Temple
Country: Scotland County: Shetland Type: Stone Circle

Map Ref: HU2853450242  Landranger Map Number: 3
Latitude: 60.235476N  Longitude: 1.48659W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 5 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Traumrealistin 43559959 Mazlow coin would like to visit

SandyG visited on 8th Jun 2019 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Limited car parking is available on the road side. The route to the site is well marked with black and white poles.

jeffrep tom_bullock davidmorgan have visited here

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by h_fenton : Stanydale 'Temple', Vertical Kite Aerial Photograph. Scale: 1 metre. 23 September 2014 (Vote or comment on this photo)
Stanydale isn't a stone circle at all. Rather, it's described as a "neolithic temple," and it's a large, walled enclosure, with an entrance, which at one time have been roofed over with wood or thatch. It's also rather hard to get to, a good tramp across pasture and moorland from a minor road.

Oddly, too, in the Shetlands where supposedly everyplace is never more than 1.5 miles from water, no body of water is even remotely visible from the site, as if the "temple" was thus sited here very much on purpose.

Note: New kite aerial photos by Hamish Fenton
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Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by h_fenton : Stanydale 'Temple' viewed from the southwest. Kite Aerial Photograph 23 September 2014 (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by davidmorgan : A nice site in the middle of nowhere. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : Entrance to Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland (Vote or comment on this photo)

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : Looking into the Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland (Vote or comment on this photo)

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : Rear of Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : 13+ Foot Thick Thick Wall of Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by Tom_Bullock : Photo used by kind permission of Tom Bullock. More details of this location are to be found on his Stone Circles and Rows CD-ROM (4 comments)

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by SandyG : Interior. View from above and east.

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by SandyG : View from north east.

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by SandyG : View from west.

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by SandyG : View from above and east (Scale 1m).

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by howe : The best preserved of the houses of the settlement outside the 'temple'. The main living area of this house is supplemented by a subsidiary compartment and the entrance has a curved windbreak.

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : One of the Six Alcoves Inside the Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by jeffrep : One of Two Post Holes to Support Roof of Stanydale Temple, West Mainland, Shetland, Scotland

Stanydale
Stanydale submitted by Tom_Bullock : Photo used by kind permission of Tom Bullock. More details of this location are to be found on his Stone Circles and Rows CD-ROM (1 comment)

Stanydale standing stones
Stanydale standing stones submitted by SandyG : Standing stones north of Staneydale Temple. View from the north.

Stanydale standing stones
Stanydale standing stones submitted by SandyG : Standing stones south of Staneydale Temple. View from north east.

Stanydale standing stones
Stanydale standing stones submitted by SandyG : Standing stones south of Staneydale Temple. View from east (Scale 1m).

Stanydale standing stones
Stanydale standing stones submitted by SandyG : Standing stones south Staneydale Temple. View from west (Scale 1m).

Stanydale standing stones
Stanydale standing stones submitted by SandyG : Standing stones south of the Staneydale Temple. View from south east (Scale 1m).

Stanydale Neolithic house
Stanydale Neolithic house submitted by SandyG : Fragment of field wall surviving in the vicinity of the Stanydale Neolithic house.

Stanydale Neolithic house
Stanydale Neolithic house submitted by SandyG : View from the north-east.

Stanydale Neolithic house
Stanydale Neolithic house submitted by SandyG : View from south west (Scale 1m). Stones in the foreground denote the position of the small enclosure attached to the house.

Stanydale Neolithic house
Stanydale Neolithic house submitted by SandyG : View from south (Scale 1m). The black and white pole is one a series denoting the path to Staneydale Temple.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 35m SSW 204° Stanydale standing stones* Standing Stones (HU28525021)
 251m ESE 102° Stanydale Neolithic house* Ancient Village or Settlement (HU28785019)
 2.8km WNW 282° Gallow Hill chambered cairn* Chambered Cairn (HU2581850821)
 2.8km W 279° Gallow Hill Cairn* Cairn (HU25715067)
 3.2km WNW 296° Scord of Brouster* Ancient Village or Settlement (HU25605165)
 3.9km WNW 290° Cattapund Knowe cairn* Cairn (HU2480851533)
 4.1km WNW 286° Hansie's Crooie Field System* Ancient Village or Settlement (HU24545133)
 4.2km WNW 287° Hansies Crooie* Chambered Cairn (HU24485147)
 4.3km W 265° Kirkidale Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HU24214984)
 4.6km E 84° Semblister Stone Circle* Stone Circle (HU3307450733)
 4.6km S 172° Giant's Grave (Hestinsetter Hill)* Chambered Cairn (HU2919945702)
 4.6km WNW 295° Loch Of Flatpunds* Chambered Cairn (HU24305219)
 4.7km WNW 298° Trolligarts 1* Chambered Cairn (HU24415243)
 4.8km WNW 298° Trolligarts 2* Chambered Cairn (HU24275249)
 5.5km E 90° Semblister Broch or Nuraghe (HU341503)
 6.3km NW 306° Burga Water Dun* Stone Fort or Dun (HU234539)
 6.3km SSW 211° Culswick Broch* Broch or Nuraghe (HU253448)
 6.7km NW 305° Burga Water cairn* Cairn (HU22975407)
 6.8km NE 36° Gravlaba* Standing Stones (HU325558)
 6.9km N 359° Brindister Voe Broch* Broch or Nuraghe (HU284572)
 7.1km SSE 168° Yahaarwell* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HU30054332)
 7.1km W 260° Stanesland standing stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HU21524889)
 7.4km S 172° Hoddans Chambered Cairn (HU29684293)
 7.4km NNW 339° Giant's Stone (West Burrafirth)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HU2583157157)
 7.5km NNW 338° West Burrafirth broch* Broch or Nuraghe (HU256572)
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"Stanydale" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
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Stanydale Hall – a gathering site or just a large Neolithic House on Shetland? by Andy B on Friday, 27 April 2018
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Stanydale Hall – a gathering site or just a large Neolithic House on Shetland?
Ditlev L. Mahler

https://www.academia.edu/5690324/Burnt_Mounds_Transforming_Space_and_Place_in_Bronze_Age_Shetland

from The Border of Farming – Shetland and ScandinaviaNeolithic and Bronze Age Farming. Papers from the symposium in Copenhagen September 2012
[ Reply to This ]
    The Processional, but not Processual, Approach to the Neolithic ‘Temple’ at Stanydale by Andy B on Friday, 27 April 2018
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    The Processional, but not Processual, Approach to the Neolithic ‘Temple’ at Stanydale, Shetland.

    Simon Clarke (Shetland University) and Esther Renwick (UHI Millenium Institute,)
    Stanydale ‘Temple’ in the West Mainland of Shetland is an unusually large late Neolithic or early Bronze Age building, clearly monumental in its conception and compared at the time of its discovery in the 1940s with megalithic temple sites in Malta. The original investigation was very much rooted in the culture historical tradition and focused on the monument itself and its design origins, largely divorced from its landscape setting.This paper will recount an experiment to “experience” the site as it may originally have been conceived by its builders, walking the line of the building’s monumental approach(based on doorway alignment and known standing stones). This identified a number of probable subsidiary monuments along the line of the route stretching for at least 900 m.These features had not previously been noted and their significance was unlikely to have been recognised purely by more systematic survey. The use ofp henomenology in archaeology has frequently been criticised as unverifiable and subjective beyond the point of usefulness. However this experiment suggests that such a methodology can be entirely repeatable and generate results testable by more objective approaches
    https://www.academia.edu/1567601/Abstrat_Book_TAG_2009_Durham_UK_
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Stanydale by chrispy on Monday, 12 February 2018
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canmore 387 originally described in canmore as a 'temple' as the 'Temples of Malta' appeared to be the closest parallel, it is now described as a 'ritual building' and its exact purpose is unclear.
Canmore also refers to the possible stone circle(s) on the site:
To the north of the 'temple' are 'the stumps of six standing stones apparently aligned in two sets of three on separate arcs, remain[ing] in situ at distances ranging from 40' to 115' from the temple on the north. They are probably the remains of Bronze Age circles or ovals which may have surrounded the 'temple''
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Stanydale by Arjessa on Friday, 16 January 2015
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The first thing that strikes me is that it's 'Horse-shoe Shaped'....perhaps this was the intention, the horse being often sacred to Ancient Peoples?
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Stanydale by Anonymous on Sunday, 18 January 2015
    Or perhaps horse-foot shaped. It''s unlikely that horses were shoed in the Neolithic.
    [ Reply to This ]

Stanydale Neolithic Temple Guided Walk, Sun 25 July by Andy B on Monday, 12 July 2010
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Stanydale Neolithic Temple Guided Walk

Sun 25 July 10.00–11.30

Guided walk starting from stanydale car park, exploring the Neolithic landscape surrounding the temple. An easy cross-country walk, wellies and waterproofs advised. …

Guided walk starting from stanydale car park, exploring the Neolithic landscape surrounding the temple. An easy cross-country walk, wellies and waterproofs advised. Free.

Location: Stanydale Temple Car Park, Staneydale.

O: Shetland College
N: Esther Renwick
E: [email protected]

Festival of British Archaeology 2010
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Stanydale by LionsFan on Friday, 10 September 2004
(User Info | Send a Message)
Staneydale (which I believe is the correct spelling) isn't a stone circle at all. Rather, it's described as a "neolithic temple," and it's a large, walled enclosure, with an entrance, which at one time have been roofed over with wood or thatch. It's also rather hard to get to, a good tramp across pasture and moorland from a minor road. Oddly, too, in the Shetlands where supposedly everyplace is never more than 1.5 miles from water, no body of water is even remotely visible from the site, as if the "temple" was thus sited here very much on purpose. But if you want privacy with your megalithic sites, this and the circle (if that's in fact what it is) on Fetlar are your sorts of places. Your only company here may well be a few curious, friendly Shetland ponies. I was there on a gloriously clear and cool September morning, and it honestly felt as if the sky opened to me and I could sense "why" our prehistoric ancestors built such structures, if not "who to."
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