Andy Burnham's Blog, page 109

Drumnahare

This standing stone in Co. Down has recently had a huge flagpole and tree planted right next to it. More on our page. Not good.

Cwrt-y-Gollen

This stone has a possible connection to Stonehenge, see our page for more. This magnificent standing stone lives beside the busy A40 just inside the entrance to the Welsh Brigade army camp (as was) just to the south of Crickhowell. Over 4 metres tall, “The Growing Stone” looks most impressive, and has a pleasant grass and trees area around it.

Coate circle

The start of a new video series on the Lost Stone Circles of Swindon, Part One is on Coate, also known as Day House Lane and also a link to Cara's video about Winterbourne Basset stone circle. The only remains of the Coate stone circle visible is an arc of 5 flat (fallen?) stones in an arc, 2 outlying stones to the south and south east respectively, and a further stone to the west of the road.

Hembury Castle

Hembury Castle is a prehistoric hillfort near Buckfastleigh, not to be confused with the better known Hembury near Honiton in Devon. It also contains the remains of what is thought to be a small medieval castle constructed within the defences of the prehistoric fort.

St Breock Downs North

Three barrows in an east-west alignment on St Breock Downs approximately 3 miles SSW of Wadebridge. St Breock Downs NW Barrow (SW 97124 68370) measures c. 19 yards in diameter and 2 feet high and has a shallow ditch c. 1 foot deep surrounding the barrow. There is a central hollow measuring c. 6 yards in diameter and 1.5 feet deep, offset to the S by several yards. A plaque defining the barrow as a protected ancient monument is located on the S Arc of the barrow.

Ménec alignements

You Origin Music Event by Stephen O’Malley taking place at various locations around Carnac, 12-14th May, details in the comments on our page. The most westerly of the three gigantic fields of menhirs, 1150 granite stones stretch over more than one kilometer in twelve rows, ending with a cromlech. Heights of 4 m in the western part but their sizes are decreasing towards the east. The queues are not parallel. The width goes from 116 m in the west to 63 m in the east. Top photo: A view of the Ménec alignements as they were in summer 1987, when you could walk amongst them - with an awful lot of erosion going on around them. These days they are fenced off.

Announcing the Megalithic Portal photo competition winners for July to Sept 2020

Continuing the catch-up of our photo competitions, we are delighted to announce the winners for the best images submitted to the Megalithic Portal in past months. Here are the winners for photos submitted to us between July and September 2020. As always these were all voted for by you, our visitors and contributors. Votes are still being registered for all photos submitted since the above dates and we will be announcing more winners soon.
1st Prize: Hajany Stone Row by Vladimir Nedved (Ladrin)
2nd Prize: Ffyst Samson by Simon Judge (spjudge62)
3rd Prize: Neu Gaarz Dolmen by Martin L
View the photos below.

Mahlsteine Kirche Trebenow

Quern stones in the church and churchyard wall in Trebenow, Brandenburg. One of the stones is in the southeast corner of the church wall, one is in the south churchyard wall and one in the west, and there is also a (probably) a door socket stone on the outside of the wall in the west.

Callanish I

Callanish stones 3D models integrated into Stellarium planetarium software - follow the link on our page for the free download.. The main Calanais site is rather cheesily known as "The Stonehenge of the North". This site forms a sort of Celtic Cross shape - the top photo shows it at dawn. Check the nearby sites list on our page for more details on each of the surrounding Callanish sites.

Tullstorpstenen

The runestone of Tullstorp stands in the churchyard in the village of the same name (belonging to Trelleborgs kommun), about 20 km east of Trelleborg in southern Scania in Sweden. It dates from around 960 to 980AD/CE, when the Viking king Harald Bluetooth tried to Christianize the Danes. During this period, it was common to place runestones near a church. Most of them were later built into the churches, like this one, built in the middle of the 12th century. In 1846 the medieval church was demolished and the stone in the eastern wall was found. A transliteration of the runes follows: