Hjaltadans
Hjaltadans, also known as Fairy Ring or Haltadans stone circle, is a stone circle on the island of Fetlar in Shetland.[1]
This site is a ring of 38 stones,[2] of which 22 are still fixed in the soil. It is 37 feet in diameter.[3] Inside this is an earthen ring 26 feet in diameter, with a 5-foot gap in the south-west side.[4] In the centre of the rings are two rectangular pillars.[3]
According to J. Jakobsen, the name Haltadans means: "lame or limping dance".[5] This is a reference to the legend that the circle of stones was once a circle of dancing trolls and that the two rock pillars in the centre were once a fiddler and his wife.[3] They had fiddled and danced all night long, and, heedless of the time, were still fiddling and dancing when the sun rose and petrified them all.
Location
- Location map:60°0’0"N, 36°0’0"E
References
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Stone Circle in Shetland
- ↑ 'Fetlar Island of the Week' Hamish Haswell-Smith in Scotland Herald 16 May 1998
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 RCAHMS record of Fetlar, Gravins, 'Haltadans'
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedmeg - ↑ Jakobsen, J. (1897). The Dialect and Place-Names of Shetland. pp. 116–117.
| Prehistoric Shetland | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Neolithic |
Benie Hoose • Funzie Girt • Hjaltadans Stone Circle • Pettigarths Field Cairns • Scord of Brouster • Standing Stones of Yoxie • Stanydale Temple • Vementry | ||
| Iron Age brochs |
Clickimin • Culswick • Mousa • Burra Ness • Clumlie • Huxter • Ness of Burgi • Snabrough • West Burrafirth | ||
| Pictish | Mixed period | ||