The Standing Stones of Yarrows

A single hillside near Wick holds Neolithic burial cairns, an Iron Age broch, and one of Scotland's largest fan-shaped stone rows — over 160 stones laid out with a purpose archaeologists still can't fully explain.

The Yarrows Archaeological Trail, near Wick in Caithness, concentrates an unusual density of prehistoric monuments into a single stretch of moorland: Neolithic long cairns, two round chambered cairns, an Iron Age broch, Bronze Age hut circles, and a scatter of standing stones spanning several thousand years of continuous use. The most striking of these is at Battle Moss, close to the Loch of Yarrows: a fan-shaped arrangement of at least 160 small and medium stones, laid out in at least eight separate rows radiating from a point, covering an area roughly 117 metres across. Excavation has shown that the stones were placed deliberately in prepared sockets, and that the row was built up over an extended period rather than in a single episode — but the purpose of the layout, ceremonial, astronomical, or otherwise, has never been established with confidence. Two further standing stones, known locally as the Needle Stones, rise from a ridge half a mile southeast of the loch, roughly six and a half and eight and a half feet tall respectively. Together with the cairns and the broch nearby, the Yarrows site represents one of the most continuously used ritual and settlement landscapes in Caithness — a place returned to and built upon by successive communities across the full span of Scottish prehistory.

Folklore Disclaimer: These accounts are drawn from local tradition, oral history, and community memory. They are not presented as factual claims.

Location accuracy: Approximate. Coordinates indicate the general area.