Steinacleit

A big expedition today - all of 200 metres off the road and up a slight hillock! I wanted to photograph this for some time to add to my blip collection. This is Steinacleit it looks like a small circle of standing stones but it was probably a prehistoric settlement - lost in the mists of time. There is a low perimeter wall that was probably used for enclosing livestock. The archeological dig in the 1930s was not very efficient and most of the value has been lost, but it is a very rare location. In the background you can see the ruined broch in the loch (predictably, Loch an Duin, - a Dun is a broch) and te village of Siadar. It is at least 2,000 years old and probably the protected residence of some high status family. The loch is high just now, but when the level is lower you can see a zig-zag path below water level, out to the island. You have to know the zigs and zags in order to reach the broch and surprise the residents. Like many such causeways there is a rocking stone which tips the unaware stranger into the loch and alerts the guards on the island.