Standing within the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the Ness of Brodgar, the Ring of Brodgar stone circle is an iconic symbol of Orkney’s prehistoric past.  The ring, built around 2500 – 2000BC, which can be seen on many Orkney postcards, calendars, books and posters, is the third largest stone circle in the British Isles, after Avebury and Stonehenge.  It is surrounded by a ditch, a complex of Bronze Age cairns and mounds, the water of the lochs of Harray and Stenness and is in a natural amphitheatre of hills. There are 27 surviving stones out of 60 originally placed in the circle. Talks by Historic Scotland rangers are held at the stones in the summer and start from the car park.  Nearby is the Comet Stone which stands alone.  Every summer at the Ness of Brodgar, archaeologists are excavating a massive Neolithic structure, a monumental building with five-metre thick outer walls with smaller structures which may have been a large temple.  There are guided tours of the site in July and August during the annual dig.

One mile from Brodgar are the Standing Stones of Stenness, four giant megaliths which may have been 12 originally.  This is one of the earliest stone circles in Britain, dating to 3100BC.  At its centre is a stone hearth. Nearby are two solitary stones: the Watchstone and the Barnhouse Stone. The Barnhouse Settlement near the Standing Stones of Stenness is an excavated group of houses dating from 3300BC to 2600BC.