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Gravlaba Standing Stones, Shetland

Published on January 24, 2015 by Elizabeth 13 Comments

Gravlaba Standing Stone, Shetland

I’m sorry, ye old weather gods, I’ve come to the realization that I have taken you for granted. I have paid the price of this negligence; the result of a mighty fine summer 2014 spent mostly indoors writing and trying to meet copy deadlines. I am truly sorry. This atrocious winter you have precipitated on me at high velocity if I dare set foot out of doors has reminded me that I have taken you for granted, and I solemnly swear I shall not make a repeat of my negligence again.

I hearby declare that should the sun actually shine and wind speed drop down into single figures, I will take the day off work. I will go outside and bask in your glorious vitamin D inducing rays. I will explore the islands I am fortunate enough to call home, and I will photograph my adventures and share them with my readers.

This week we had one of those sunny days. For the first time in what feels like forever the BBC Weather App showed little pictures of sun, in succession – not sun obscured by a cloud with two giant drop of heavy rain, or lightning, or a wind speed of 59mph, but sun, and single figure wind speeds too!

So, after some pacing at my kitchen window wondering where I could go outdoors to enjoy this brief moment of sunshine, I decided to venture out to some nearby standing stones. Leaving the OS map open on the table for my husband to see when he returned home with an arrow and “I’ve gone here, if I’m not back by dark come looking for me!” message scrawled on a sticky note.

Gravlaba map

My eldest son and I had found these standing stones on a hike several years ago. We’d been reading our OS map and saw ‘standing stones’ marked on it (HU 325 558). So we plotted the co-ordinates into our GPS and went walking, the long way – as the crow flies from our door step. It was incredibly boggy that route, so the path I took this time was somewhat shorter. A quick drive over the hill to Clousta, hopping a few fences and trekking through a few sheep fields and I was there.

hiking over boggy area

Someone had laid down a few planks over a particularly boggy area. I was very grateful for these!

Shetland sheep

This ewe was all by her lonesome in a field. Initially I thought she had been forgotten about when the rest of her flock was moved to another field, but upon observing her bizarre behaviour (see my Instagram video here) I came to realise it was ill and that’s why it was isolated. Nonetheless, she was my only companion on my adventures, and I developed a fondness for her.

The Scord, Shetland

The ruins of an old croft can be seen in the distance. When my eldest and I first explored this area we came via this direction and we had a good old gander inside this house, mostly used these days by sheep to shelter from the harsh winter climate.

gravlaba neolithic site

Before you get to the standing stones there are the remains of a chambered cairn structure – a late Neolithic/Bronze Age homestead. A quick poke through the rocks in the hopes of finding a bit of treasure which might have been missed by previous excavations yielded nothing but a few feathers and some sheep poo, so I moved on.

Gravlaba Standing Stones, Shetland

There are two standing stones in this area, but only one remains upright. I’m five foot four and three quarters inches tall, and standing on my tiptoes I still couldn’t reach the top of the upright stone.

Gravlaba Standing Stones, Shetland

Gravlaba Standing Stones, Shetland

Gravlaba Standing Stones, Shetland

Gravlaba lichen

I sat for ages on the fallen standing stone, enjoying finally feeling the sun on my face for the first time in what feels like forever, savouring the peace and quiet and the brief reprieve from the relentless winter gales.

Loch of Vaara, Shetland

Loch of Vaara, Shetland

Loch of North-house, Shetland

Loch of North-house, Shetland

The photo above was taken around 1:30 in the afternoon. The sun is still low on the horizon, you can see, but at least it’s shining!

Searching the internet yields very little information about these Gravlaba standing stones, aka Greflabbas Knowe. Most archaeological text simply states that they exist, but nothing about their history or folklore except for this:

If you visit Gravlaba you will see a cairn and some standing stones. But don’t look too hard just in case. One day some visitors to this site were just too nosy and they saw some Picts (fairies) dancing in the knowe to celebrate the birth of a child. These two people didn’t just intrude and stare, they tried to nick off with a keg of buttermilk that had been laid in for the party! It’s not surprising, but the Picts turned them to stone for their rudeness. The keg of buttermilk got turned to stone too (bit of a mix up with the curses I think). So there used to be three stones there, but now apparently there are only two. Perhaps the Picts eventually worked out how to get their buttermilk back.

(very likely in Grinsell’s ‘Folklore of Prehstoric Sites in Britain’) [source].

If you enjoyed this outdoor Shetland post why not follow my Shetland pinterest board and follow me on Instagram where I regularly share my outdoor photos (and lots of food photos!). I’m also on Twitter.

Follow Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary’s board Shetland on Pinterest.

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Filed Under: Adventure, Shetland Tagged With: Archaeology, Bronze Age, Gravlaba, Neolithic, Shetland

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Comments

  1. Jayne T says

    March 29, 2015 at 7:44 pm

    These photos are lovely, I would love to visit.

    Reply
  2. sarah-dawn pope says

    March 8, 2015 at 10:15 pm

    Stunning pictures. I have a bit of a thing about standing stones tbh. I always try and find some to visit when on my travels.

    Reply
  3. Ashley @ When the Dust Settles says

    February 25, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    As a birdwatcher I’ve always wanted to visit Shetland and you photos show the wonderfully desolate looking landscapes (that’s a compliment of the scenery by the way).

    Reply
  4. Johanna GGG says

    February 17, 2015 at 11:12 am

    What a lovely excursion – you make me feel like I take the sun for granted because we have so much of it – would love to spend time visiting standing stones and I love that story at the end about the buttermilk – probably the picts were protecting their buttermilk from interlopers – and I hope that the sheep was ok

    Reply
  5. Maya Russell says

    February 14, 2015 at 8:51 am

    So wild, peaceful and beautiful. Must look up this place for a holiday.

    Reply
  6. bev says

    February 6, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    gorgeous photos!

    Reply
    • Elizabeth says

      February 7, 2015 at 8:41 am

      Thank you – we do live in a beautiful part of the world!

      Reply
  7. Kate - gluten free alchemist says

    January 28, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    You live in a truly beautiful place. I always love to see your walking photos. So peaceful and people less. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  8. sustainablemum says

    January 26, 2015 at 12:39 pm

    Thank you for sharing your beautiful part of the world 🙂

    Reply
  9. Holly says

    January 25, 2015 at 9:48 pm

    Truly, truly beautiful post and it was great to see its location on the map. So worrying for that poor ewe though!

    Reply
  10. Angela Webster says

    January 24, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    Aw, the lonely Ewe. Poor thing. Lovely post, although I think the Picts may of over reacted just a tad regarding the butter milk o_o lol.

    I loved your photos in this post so followed your Pinterest board for updates.

    Reply
  11. Ellie says

    January 24, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    I’ve never been here before but the pictures make it look gorgeous!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Road Trip Plans for Scotland's North Islands! - Vagabond Baker says:
    June 8, 2015 at 8:01 am

    […] a HUGE fan of neolithic stone circles and standing stones and I was pleased when I read this post on Elisabeth’s Kitchen Diary about standing stones on Sheltland. The scenery looks so beautiful. Elizabeth lives […]

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About Elizabeth

Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, fitness enthusiast, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger. Read More…

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