Stanydale Temple

The smaller houses both have a large central space and some small rooms. The main building is heel-shaped with a concave facade, as are other neolithic buildings in Shetland. It has a shallow crescent-shaped forecourt. An alcove outside the door may have been a guardroom. The building is entered from the forecourt via a short, dog-legged passage. The building's walls enclose an oval area about 40 by with six shallow recesses. Excavations have found two post holes along the axis of the oval that each contained the carbonized remains of a spruce post 10 in in width. The species of spruce, Picea abies (Norway spruce), is not native to Scotland; the posts were presumably driftwood carried…