Lund, Island of Unst

This standing stone is about 4metres (13ft.) high and stands well back from the sea. The stone stands alone but there are also two fallen stones nearby. The Island of Lund is the furthest north of the Shetland Isles and this standing stone is amost certainly the most northerly in the British Isles. This, then is the start of our ‘virtual journey’, from north to south.

A. & A.S. Thom (Megalithic Remains in Britain and Brittany, OUP,1978) believe this to be a lunar observatory site. This tall stone is certainly visible from the sea and may have been erected as a land mark for navigation purposes.

The black and white photograph was published in Records in Stone - Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom edited by Clive Ruggles, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

I photographed this site in 1978.

Posted on Jan 04, 2006

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