Haltadans | |
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Native name Fairy Ring | |
Location | Shetland, Scotland |
Coordinates | 60°36′36.57″N 0°51′49.95″W / 60.6101583°N 0.8638750°W |
Built | During the Neolithic Period |
Architectural style(s) | British pre-Roman Architecture |
Haltadans shown within
Shetland |
Haltadans, also known as Fairy Ring or Haltadans stone circle, is a stone circle on the island of Fetlar in Shetland, Scotland. [1] This site is a ring of 38 stones, [2] of which 22 are still fixed in the soil, and it is 11 metres (37 ft) in diameter. [3] Inside this is an earthen ring 7.9 metres (26 ft) in diameter, with a 1.5 metres (5 ft) gap in the southwest side. [1] In the center of the rings are two rectangular pillars. [1] [3]
According to Jakob Jakobsen, the name Haltadans means: "lame or limping dance". [4] 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. [2]