Calanais

The Calanais Stones or Calanais I is situated near the village of Callanish (Gaelic: Calanais) on the west coast of Lewis. The site is an arrangement of standing stones, placed in a cross-shaped pattern with a central stone circle of 13 stones. The central monolith near the middle of the circle is 4.8 metres high. The stone circle contains a chambered cairn. Five rows of standing stones connect to the stone circle. Two long rows of stones run almost parallel to each other from the stone circle to the north-east and form an avenue to the circle. The avenue is 83 metres long and nine stones on the eastern side and ten on the western side remain today. The stone circle was erected between 2900 and 2600 BCE. It is not clear whether the connecting stone alignments were constructed at the same time, or later.

Other ritual sites lie within a few kilometres of Calanais I, including three stone circles, named Calanais II, III and IV. Calanais VIII is a semicircle of four large stones on the edge of a cliff on the south of the island of Great Bernera.