Stone Circles

March 28, 2003 6:35 AM

The Stone Pages. 'Over the last 14 years we have personally visited and photographed all 529 archæological sites you will find in these pages (117 in the six national sections and 412 in our Tours section), creating the first Web guide to European megaliths and other prehistoric sites, online since February 1996.'
Related :- Ancient Stones, a personal photographic guide to the stone circles of Britain; Megalithic Walks, diaries of days out visiting some of these places; the Prehistoric Monuments of Wales; the interactive Megalith Map. These sites also have great links pages to more megalithic resources.
posted by plep (13 comments total)

Also, the Save Nine Ladies campaign to save a stone circle in Derbyshire.
posted by plep at 6:36 AM on March 28, 2003

Cool. I used The Stone Pages extensively while I was getting ready for my trip to Ireland. They are missing way too much stuff, but still an excellent resource.

Here's another great resource for this stuff. Much better than the others for ireland archæological sites.

Also, if people want more pictures of these sites, I have about 250 pictures from my last Ireland trip on my website. Go to pictures, then use the ireland links. Here's one of my favorites from Carrowkeel.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:11 AM on March 28, 2003

That's pretty neat. Good excuse to travel. I'd like to photograph the 730 World Heritage sites

The reason there are so many stone megaliths in western northern Europe is, Ive theorized, because after the last ice age the retreating glaciers left a lot of natural stone megaliths that became the raw material physical and inspirational for a cultural to create their own megaliths.
posted by stbalbach at 7:16 AM on March 28, 2003

Oh, very nice. Thank you, plep. I've been to a number of neolithic sites in England, Scotland, Wales, and Germany. I was planning to sail to the island of Menorca two summers ago to see the Taulas, but that didn't come to pass, sadly.
posted by MrBaliHai at 7:17 AM on March 28, 2003

[this is good]

Fascinating stuff, plep. Thanks!
posted by Slithy_Tove at 7:25 AM on March 28, 2003

I ♥ plep! Not only does s/he consistently post wonderful links here, but s/he has a plethora of them on his/her website.
posted by Lynsey at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2003

Megalithic Sound and Landscape,
a site at Reading University.

'Prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge, Newgrange and Avebury have dominated the landscape of the British Isles since the Neolithic. How might places like these have been experienced and understood by the people who built and used them over four thousand years ago?'

Interesting.
posted by plep at 9:29 AM on March 28, 2003

Also, seeing this post brought up the song "Rollright Stones" by Traffic in my mind. While trying to find a link to that, I ran across all these other sites that have music associated with stones!
posted by Lynsey at 9:44 AM on March 28, 2003

Right before I went to England for my junior year of college my then-girlfriend made me read "The Little Country" by Charles DeLint, which deals specifically with a lot of the standing stones and stone circles in Cornwall. The one that intrigued me the most, and which I remember being kind of central to the story, was the Mên-an-Tol. I went to Cornwall for my spring break that year just so I could see the stones mentioned in that book. I got a lot of weird looks because I would ask for bus routes and cabs to tiny little towns and villages that were really out of the way, and it wasn't really tourist season. People there didn't really know what to make of me.
posted by starvingartist at 9:48 AM on March 28, 2003

Take a stroll across Dartmoor, away from the roads, and you can see many stone circles and stone rows... It's a great place to see them - not many people see all of them because they are a bit out of the way, maybe a few miles off-road, and it takes a bit of effort to spot them (most are quite discreet). When I did this, virtually the only people encountered were Territorial Army boys on training exercises! They fit right in with the wild, primeval landscape of the moor, with its strange rock formations. Of course, megalithic maps make finding these sites that much easier.

Thanks for all the other links, everyone.
posted by plep at 10:06 AM on March 28, 2003

Female Anatomy Inspired Stonehenge?
posted by homunculus at 1:41 PM on March 28, 2003

Great stuff plep, been to quite a few of those places. Near Carnac, stood next to Le Grand Menhir Brise in Locmariaquer, 75 feet tall (now fallen and broken) and 375 tons - you can't imagine how a bunch of hairy Celts stood it up. All the conventional ideas of treetrunks for crowbars, etc., just seem useless when confronted with this monstrous stone.
We are fairly familiar with the concept of the Egyptians having an organizational structure capable of moving lots of large rocks, but there was a society capable of similar feats in Europe of which no real trace remains except the megaliths we see today, and of whose customs and beliefs we know almost nothing.
posted by Joeforking at 7:31 PM on March 28, 2003

Gee, I got to the party late and it seems we may be putting a strain on some of these pages. Great links, the ones I've accessed - can't wait to explore the others. (More quality stuff from plep!)

I came upon some standing stones while in the pretty Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth. Here's a guide to some of the ancient sites in that area.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:00 PM on March 28, 2003