Metsaääre: Sacrificial Grove, Stone Circle and Hilly Landscape

Metsaääre combines a focus on cultural history with specific landscape features: alongside the Hiis, a protected sacrificial site, are the traditional stone circle Hiietantsijate koht and older descriptions of hills and terrain. If you want to understand a destination through its history and landscape, Metsaääre offers several different points of interest. The Hiis provides the cultural heritage context; the stone circle’s dimensions and past use bring it to life, while the landscape descriptions convey the elevation and slope. The place can thus be explored through several aspects rather than a single feature.

Protected sacred site and associated stone

Metsaääre Hiis is a protected sacrificial site and a historic natural sacred site; it bears registration number 12467. Its protected status and historical classification are thus linked. Within the protected sacrificial grove Ohvrihiis lies the Ohvrikivi, also known as hiiekivi. This distinction is useful for understanding how the sites relate to one another: the sacrificial grove refers to the protected site, while the Ohvrikivi/hiiekivi is the stone located within it. A broader sacred-site context and a specific associated stone are thus presented side by side.

Hiietantsijate koht and the landscape

On Rauniku mägi hill, Hiietantsijate koht is described in a traditional account of the landscape as an oval ring of large ironstone boulders. Its diameter is given as 21 metres from north to south and 29 metres from east to west. These two measurements illustrate the oval shape: the ring is eight metres longer from east to west. The site is also associated with the former practice of dancing within the stone circle; this practice was called “hiiel-käimiseks.” The stone circle thus brings together a specific shape, a clear difference in dimensions and a tradition of historical use.

Penimägi is another distinctive landscape feature. The hill was described as relatively high, while the terrain was lower towards the bog. This difference creates a contrast in elevation in the landscape described: on one side is Penimägi as a relatively elevated spot, and on the other is lower-lying terrain towards the bog. For travellers interested in landscape history, this adds a different perspective from the stone circle’s measurements; the focus is not the shape of a single object, but the relationship between the hill and the lower-lying terrain.

Another older description of the terrain concerns the eastern side of Rauniku mägi: it is described as being covered in places with ironstone and limestone; the description gives the slope as approximately 20–30 degrees. Rock exposure and vegetation may have changed since then. The descriptions also differ in what they cover: the stone circle is described in terms of shape and dimensions, while the eastern side is described in terms of rock and slope. Together, these historical landscape references provide an objective basis for understanding Metsaääre not only as a sacred-site destination, but also through specific terrain features.

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For the broader travel overview: Saaremaa.