Stan Stane
The Stan Stane is a pierced menhir , a so-called perforated stone , which stands at the Holland house on North Ronaldsay , the northernmost island of the Orkney . It is the only megalith on the island. Its name, which comes from the Nordic dialect , means "standing stone". It was assumed that the lonely monolith belonged to a stone circle, some of which once stood in the area of "Tor Ness".
Of about four meters high, about 60 cm thick and about one meter wide Menhir ( English Standing Stone ) tapers from its base to the top. Like the Odin Stone on Mainland , the Stan Stane is perforated. The hole is about two meters above the ground. It is therefore unusually high and is much smaller than other perforated stones. It is therefore unlikely that it can be linked to the tradition handed down on perforated stones.
However, the stone was the gathering place for an old New Year's custom on North Ronaldsay, where islanders would gather around it to sing. At the end of the 18th century, the Reverend William Clouston, of Sanday, wrote : “The scribe saw 50 of the residents there on New Year's Day. They danced in the moonlight and sang. ”This makes the ceremony one of a number of traditional Yule traditions that can be associated with menhirs, but whose celebrations were postponed from mid-winter to the turn of the year.
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Coordinates: 59 ° 21 '43.4 " N , 2 ° 26' 14.7" W.