The Dwarfie Stane is a block of Old Red Sandstone roughly nine metres long and five metres wide, cut from the valley wall and hollowed into two chambers sometime around 3000 BCE. It is unique in Britain: while rock-cut tombs are relatively common in the Mediterranean and North Africa, this is the only known example on British soil. Its isolation in a steep glaciated valley between Quoys and Rackwick on the island of Hoy gives it a theatrical quality that made it irresistible to folklore.
The story
Orkney legend associates the Stane with giants and trows (the island's fairy-folk, descended from Norse trolls). In one Orkney fable, a giant carved the chambers for his pregnant wife but the couple were imprisoned inside when a rival sealed the entrance block with a great stone; the trapped giant eventually gnawed through the roof with his bare teeth to escape, leaving the hole still visible today. The adjacent valley is called Trowieglen — the glen of the trows — and local tradition warns that anything taken there will be stolen by the fairy-folk who inhabit it. Walter Scott incorporated the Stane into his 1822 novel The Pirate, where a dwarf named Trolld regards it as his favourite residence, helping spread knowledge of the site beyond Orkney.
The monument is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The combination of Neolithic archaeology and layered folklore — Norse, Orkney vernacular, and literary — makes the Dwarfie Stane one of the most atmospherically resonant sites in the Scottish Islands.