View of a Semicircle of Stones on the Banks of Stenhouse Lake in the Island of Pomona

On the return voyage from Iceland, Banks and party spent a week botanizing, measuring and ’Grave Digging’ on the main island of the Orkneys. Their guide was the Rev George Low, who led them to a series of ancient stones and tumuli. Here, the artist records the epic monoliths of Stenness, its stones highlighted against the low relief of the surrounding topography. Regularised, their layout is made more symmetrical and their height exaggerated by a low viewpoint.