Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

128 STONE FORTS.
ruin was really a portion of one of these very works.
The dimensions are infinitely various; reaching from ten
or twelve feet in diameter, even to fifty or sixty, or more.
In one, in North Uist, the small island on which it stands,
is connected by a solid causeway to the shore ; and, in
Aberdeenshire, where they occupy the summits of hills,
they have often a similar access, strongly laid, like a
Roman road, and extending for a considerable way down
the hill. Some other variations may be observed ; and
in truth, so far from having been built on any regular
plan, they present as much diversity as buildings so rude
could well do. One of the most remarkable varieties,
which I have not yet mentioned, is that in which they
seem to have been divided into separate apartments; an
instance of which occurs in Sky, and which are frequent
in Orkney. That they were often citadels rather than
military posts, intended for sheltering the families and
cattle, or other property, of the warlike tribes of those
days, seems the best conclusion that can be formed, from
the construction and the positions of many of them,
and particularly of the larger.
Yet the small ones could not have served that pur-
pose; while the presence of a banquette implies offensive
rather than passive defence : and in truth, misled by the
rude construction and circular form, antiquaries have
confounded under one general view and terra, works
which seem to have been designed for various purposes,
and to have belonged, probably, to very different ages
just as they have introduced confusion into the circles of
separate stones, by assigning them all, of whatever na-
ture, to their favourite and, thus far, visionary Druids.
This is a subject that would demand and admit of a sepa-
rate discussion ;
but that must be founded, not on systems
built under cover of a night gown and slippers, but on a
;