It was a grey day when I filmed at The Hurlers for Standing with Stones. An amazing site this – it doesn’t immediately impose itself on the visitor – it’s only by slow absorption that you get alerted to the grandeur that is laid out here across Bodmin Moor. Not one, not two but three large stone circles in immediate proximity to one another, more exquisitely defying the visitor to decipher its meaning than many other monuments. It’s a sleeping giant of a site. All the more pity that it did not feature more in the film. I suspect that if we had begun to scratch the surface even a little, we could have easily added half an hour to the DVD. Someone with more time on their hands might be inspired to write a novel.
As with the settlement at Roughtor to the North, the scene is dominated, not by a work of man, but by a curious work of nature – in this case named: ‘The Cheesewring‘. About 1 Km to the North of the rings and high up on Stowe’s Hill, The Cheesewring is a natural outcrop of granite that has been weathered into marvellous stratified shapes.
The interesting thing to note here is that again, as noted in the entry on this blog about Roughtor, we missed the encircling structure of a man made stone rampart. It seems that there is a class of structure known as a ‘tor enclosure‘. The example at Roughtor was previously dated to the Iron Age and therefore interpreted as a defensive structure. However, it is now dated to the Neolithic. What is curious is, that in an age when defensive structures are unknown (certainly as distinct from Iron Age hill forts), that encircling stone walls such as this are reserved for what it is hard not to interpret as naturally formed ‘sacred’ sites.
Less than 12 metres across, the Stone Circle at Duloe in the east of Cornwall is the smallest in the county. However, the eight gleaming white quartz stones have a presence all their own and give this circle a unique quality that I don’t think is repeated anywhere else.
Interestingly, the adjoining farm is named Stonetown and first recorded as such in 1329 but the circle itself does not have any reference before 1858.
I shot the footage from which these screenshots are taken in December 2005. Could someone please tell me what lambs were doing around at this time of the year? Made for some nice shots, though.
Latest news from Ring of Brodgar Excavation, 2008 – Tuesday, 29th July.
“Well, yesterday we finally completed the excavation of the larger northern ditch trench. In all honesty it looked absolutely spectacular.
It certainly took us a lot of time and energy simply removing its soft silts and fill. Completely rock-cut, the ditch in this sector is deep, very broad and flat-bottomed.
Working at its base makes you realise just how impressive this monument must have appeared when it was first excavated back in the third millennium BC.
Similarly, you appreciate the sheer scale of labour that was involved in cutting through the rock to form the ditch, let alone in quarrying and moving the stones forming the circle.
The colours of rock have been influenced by water logging so the orange brown Orkney flagstones gives way to a deep grey-blue near the base of the ditch.
Strangely enough this actually gives the appearance of water standing in the ditch bottom. From this evidence it is quite clear that in the northern area, at least, standing water collected soon after the ditch was dug. This may seem strange, but it is worth remembering that the surrounding ditch was cut to enclose the area of the stone circle and in the Orcadian island world water surrounded islands and people. Therefore, the use of water to create a division – to separate it from the rest of the world – was an appropriate strategy employing everyday imagery.”
For full article by Colin Richards go to: http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ringofbrodgar/index.html
The image above of the Ring of Brodgar includes computer generated ‘missing’ stones occupying stone sockets discovered only yesterday by the 2008 excavation team.
“An exciting day today, with Norma and Adrian Challands confirming the presence of no less that 19 stone sockets, running from the edge of Trench C, clockwise past the south-eastern causeway, to Trench A. Including the surviving stones and stumps, this means 36 stones once stood in that section (roughly half) of the stone circle.
The sockets were placed at a distance three metres apart. The number hints that the Ring of Brodgar could have contained more than the 60 it has long been believed to contain.
A survey of the final section will be required to confirm this.”
For the original article and more pictures: http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ringofbrodgar/index.html
Excavations at the Ring of Brodgar began on 9th July, 2008.
“The Ring of Brodgar is one of the largest Neolithic stone circles in Britain. Yet we know surprisingly little about it – in particular its age.
This summer, for the first time in 35 years, archaeologists are carrying out excavations at the Ring, hoping to answer a number of long-standing questions. . .”
“The Ring stands on the Ness of Brodgar, a low-lying isthmus, separating the lochs of Harray and Stenness, centrally placed within the large natural bowl of western Mainland, Orkney.
However, when it comes to the Ring of Brodgar very little is actually known about this amazing site – instead interpretation has been constructed on the basis of the characteristics of other sites.”
As a ‘monument’ the Ring of Brodgar is not alone. Together with the Stones of Stenness, a much smaller stone circle set within an enclosing ditch, it forms part of a monumental group, which also includes Maeshowe and a number of standing stones.
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15th March, 2007
We carried this camera boom all over the British Isles but this is the only time we got to use it.
This is at the little stone circle that has a road running plumb through the middle of it and it was great to be able to hang the camera out over the road as Rupert drove past.
14th March, 2007
We loved the Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire.
It may not be clear what their purpose was, but it’s heartnening to find so many all together that clearly share a purpose. It must have been an important one: the size of those altar stones!
7th march, 2007
It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it!
Powys, 20th October, 2006
High up in the Brecons, Cerrig Duon & the Maen Mawr is a suprisingly modest monument but nevertheless as impressive as it gets in South Wales – as far as stone circles are concerned.
No more than 300 yards from the road, a swollen stream meant a round trip of what seemed like 300 miles to get to it.
Pont-y-Pridd, 19th October, 2006
Just in case you thought we only worked when the sun was shining.
The Pont-y-Pridd Rocking Stone stone circle looks pretty convincing but in fact it’s a 19th century folly. Thing is, how do we know that Bronze Age circles aren’t follies – i.e. homages to earlier stones circles whose real purpose has been forgotten?
