The Watchstone, like the Barnhouse and the Stones of Stenness is clearly visible from the Kirkwall-Stromness road. You cannot miss it.
I couldn't help but imagine an avenue of stones connecting Stenness and Brogar, though of course, there's no evidence for this at all.
At 19 feet high, the Watchstone was once one of a pair of standing stones which guarded the causeway leading to the Ring Of Brodgar.
Although it will never really be known what the purpose for the Watchstone ever really was. It has been speculated that it could have formed part of a ceremonial link between the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Brodgar ring.
It was once believed that the Watchstone would come alive at midnight every New Year's Eve and drink from the loch next to which it stands.
This tale of course stems from the time when folk believed that standing stones were petrified giants. I'm not sure how widely believed it is nowadays lol!
1760 Pococke's drawing shows a second stone on the opposite side of the road a little further away from the roadside. This is longer than it is tall and resembles a recumbent [though I suppose it could be a very large natural boulder like the Savile Stone]. The 'companion' stone is actually a diamond shape which if to the same scale as the Watch Stone would come oot as some 14' high and wide ! As far as I can tell from Pococke's drawing it would have been about grid ref HY30671275.
Wilson 1842 "Close to either side of the southern end of the bridge... stands a great sentinel stone...
...as you approach [the Ring of Brodgar] you pass here and there a solitary stone or broken remnant, as if there had been... a connecting range or approach, all the way from the bridge to the great circle"
14 yards SSW a stone stump aligned NE/SW could possibly now gone could have been all that remained of the arc of a large circle now underwater. It was 4'9" wide, 5" thick and a little over 3' high. The top was level with the presentday ground surface.
A Web site belonging to Charles Tait who I'm assuming is a professional photographer. This page has a good photo of the Watchstone on it, and if you're in a mood for browsing there are a few other photos worth looking at on the same site.
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