Circle of Callanish

This photograph was taken by Scottish photographer George Washington Wilson (1823-93) and was used to illustrate talks he gave on Highland history. The following description is taken from Washington Wilson's own lecture notes.<br /> <br /> At the head of one of the inlets in Loch Bernera is a megalithic, cruciform, Druidical Circle, called the Circle of Callernish. This Druidical temple is one of the largest, as well as one of the most complete of its kind in Scotland. The total number of stones, when the temple was complete, was sixty-five, of which about forty-five are still standing, ranging from sixteen to four feet in height.<br /> <br /> In the immediate neighbourhood are several smaller circles, some of them, however, being as large as fifty feet in diameter. The circle occupies a striking position in an open track of moor, and appears to have been surrounded at a small distance by a trench or ditch, which is now in many places obscured, the same as at Stenneshouse, Orkney, and Stonehenge, England. It is thought by some that these circles may have been places of worship, erected by the Norsemen, as in some of the Northern Saga; the temple of Thor is described as a circular range of upright stones, containing a central stone, called the stone of Thor, where the sacrifices or executions were performed.