The Ring of Brodgar is a Neolithic stone circle and henge on Orkney’s Mainland, built around 2500 BC and now recognised as Scotland’s largest stone circle. It’s part of the UNESCO-listed Heart of Neolithic Orkney alongside Skara Brae, Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness, and unlike some of its neighbours it’s genuinely free to visit, with no ticket office and no opening hours to plan around.

History of the Ring of Brodgar

A Circle Cut from Solid Rock

The Ring of Brodgar stands on a narrow strip of land between the freshwater Loch of Harray and the saltwater Loch of Stenness, and Historic Environment Scotland’s own best estimate, in the absence of a full excavation of the site, places its construction sometime between 2600 and 2400 BC, with surrounding burial mounds and stone settings added later, between roughly 2500 and 1500 BC. The circle is unusually close to a true circle in its layout, 104 metres in diameter, at a time when most stone circles were built as ovals or flattened on one side; it’s encircled by a rock-cut henge ditch, originally more than four metres deep in places, that had to be quarried entirely by hand using antler picks and stone tools, since metal tools didn’t yet exist in Neolithic Orkney. Estimates for the labour involved in cutting that ditch alone run from roughly 80,000 to 200,000 man-hours, depending on the study, which gives some sense of the scale of coordinated effort the site represents even before a single stone was raised.

The ring originally held around 60 stones; Historic Environment Scotland’s current figure is that 36 survive today, standing between 2.1 and 4.7 metres tall, though older surveys and some independent sources put the surviving count closer to 27, a discrepancy that reflects how the site’s condition has been recorded differently by different surveys over the decades rather than any real dispute about which stones are still there. Several have fallen or been lost entirely over the centuries, and at least one was split clean down its length by a lightning strike on 5 June 1980. A handful of the stones carry later carvings, added long after the Neolithic builders had gone: a Norse runic inscription reading the name “Bjorn,” a simple cross, and an ogham inscription, among others, added by later visitors who found the site just as striking as anyone does today.

Centuries of Curiosity, Little Excavation

Unusually for a monument this significant, the Ring of Brodgar has never been fully excavated, which is precisely why its exact date and purpose remain genuinely uncertain rather than settled fact. What’s clear is that people have been curious about it for a very long time: the earliest known written account of the site dates back to 1529, complete with illustrations, and it became one of the first places in the British Isles to be formally protected as a monument of historical significance when it was scheduled in 1882. A local folk tradition offers its own explanation for the stones’ origin, describing how the ring was formed when a group of giants, caught dancing in a circle as the sun rose, were frozen instantly to stone — a story with the same shape as legends told about other British stone circles, where the strangeness of the monument gets folded into a story about people turned to rock rather than treated as a mystery with no answer at all.

Recent Discoveries: The Ness of Brodgar and the 2026 Time Team Dig

Roughly half a mile from the Ring of Brodgar, on the narrow strip of land connecting it to the Stones of Stenness, sits the Ness of Brodgar — a vast complex of Neolithic buildings first identified by geophysical survey in 2002 and excavated almost continuously from 2003 until 2024, under site director Nick Card of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute. What the Ness revealed reshaped how archaeologists understand this whole landscape: rather than isolated monuments, Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and the Ness itself now look like parts of one connected Neolithic complex, with population estimates for the surrounding area running as high as 20,000 people at its height — comparable to Orkney’s population today, and a scale of settlement that has forced a rethink of how significant Neolithic Orkney was compared with better-known sites like Stonehenge, built later than much of what Orkney produced. Over two decades of digging, the Ness alone yielded more than 10,000 individual finds, including the largest assemblage of Grooved Ware pottery ever recovered from a single site, along with occasional Mesolithic material suggesting a human presence here going back even further than the Neolithic monuments themselves.

The dig was formally wound down and backfilled in 2024, but the story didn’t quite end there. A fresh ground-penetrating radar survey carried out by Time Team’s own geophysics specialists in 2025 turned up several unexplained anomalies beneath the surface, described by the excavation team as a genuinely exciting discovery, and Time Team funded a real, four-week return excavation to investigate them, running from 7 to 30 July 2026. Sir Tony Robinson, the show’s long-running host, visited the site in person during the dig, alongside Time Team regulars John Gater, Jackie McKinley and Dani Wootton, working with a small Ness crew to hand-excavate the new trench; free public tours ran twice daily throughout, with no booking required. It’s a genuinely live, ongoing story rather than settled history — the previously excavated buildings remain covered and won’t be visible to visitors, but the site continues to produce new findings well after most people assumed the story was over.

Visiting the Ring of Brodgar: Practical Information

Verified against the official Historic Environment Scotland website (historicenvironment.scot), checked September 2026.

The Ring of Brodgar is free to enter and open year-round, with no ticket office, no admission charge and no set opening hours — a genuine point of difference from Skara Brae nearby, which is ticketed. It sits just off the B9055, roughly a mile north-west of the main A965 Stromness-Kirkwall road, with parking available on the opposite side of the B road and a short footpath leading to the monument itself. The site is managed by the Historic Scotland Ranger Service, who patrol and survey the wider Heart of Neolithic Orkney landscape and run free guided walks at Brodgar covering its history, wildlife and folklore — worth checking current dates directly with Historic Environment Scotland, since ranger-led walks vary through the year. Because there’s no visitor centre on site, conditions are genuinely exposed to Orkney’s fast-changing weather; waterproofs and sturdy footwear are worth having regardless of the forecast at the car park.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need tickets for the Ring of Brodgar?

No — this is a common assumption, but the Ring of Brodgar is free to enter year-round, with no ticket office and no booking required. It’s genuinely different from Skara Brae nearby, which does require a paid ticket.

How many stones are in the Ring of Brodgar?

The ring originally held around 60 stones; Historic Environment Scotland’s current figure is that 36 survive today, though some independent sources put the surviving number closer to 27, reflecting differences in how the site has been surveyed over the years.

How old is the Ring of Brodgar?

Historic Environment Scotland’s best estimate places its construction between 2600 and 2400 BC, based on limited archaeological evidence, since the site has never been fully excavated. Surrounding burial mounds and stone settings were likely added later, between roughly 2500 and 1500 BC.

What is the Ness of Brodgar, and how does it connect to the Ring?

The Ness of Brodgar is a major Neolithic building complex on the strip of land between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, excavated from 2003 to 2024. It revealed that these separate-looking monuments were likely part of one connected prehistoric landscape, with a population far larger than previously assumed.

Did Time Team really dig at the Ness of Brodgar?

Yes — after the main excavation ended in 2024, a 2025 ground-penetrating radar survey by Time Team’s own specialists found new underground anomalies, and Time Team funded a genuine four-week return dig from 7 to 30 July 2026, with host Sir Tony Robinson visiting the site and free public tours running throughout.

Is the Ring of Brodgar bigger than Stonehenge?

The Ring of Brodgar, at 104 metres across, has a larger overall diameter than Stonehenge, though Stonehenge’s individual stones are generally larger and more heavily worked. The Ring of Brodgar is usually described as the third-largest stone circle in the British Isles, after Avebury and Stonehenge.

For more of Scotland’s prehistoric sites, our guide to Skara Brae’s visitor centre and tickets covers the other, ticketed half of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney landscape, or browse the full UNESCO World Heritage Sites collection. Visit the Scotland hub for more of the country.