Andy Burnham's Blog, page 76

Announcing the Megalithic Portal photo competition winners for Oct to Dec 2020

Continuing the catch-up of our photo competitions, we are delighted to announce the winners for photos submitted to us between October and December 2020. As always these were all voted for by you, our visitors and contributors. Votes are still being collected for all photos submitted since then and we will be announcing more winners soon.

1st Prize: The Rollright Stones by David Smyth (Energyman)
2nd Prize: Nottingham Hill. Photo taken by Cate Davies and sent in by RyNorfolk
3rd Prize: Moel Ty Uchaf by DJMace
View the winning photos and highly commendeds below.

St. Kennera's Cross

Early Christian Sculptured Stone in Scotland. Due to the sale of Kirkinner Parish Kirk, the cross has been moved to the outside of the Community Centre and is now visible from the road. It has been encased in a clear box to protect it from the elements.

Devils Den

Ben Edge's painting of the Devil's Den has inspired a new opera by Isabella Gellis, which will be performed by the Shadwell Opera this June 15th 2024 at the Nevill Holt festival in Leicestershire. Burial Chamber (Dolmen) with Cup Marked Capstone in Wiltshire. Reconstructed in 1921. All that remains are two standing stones and a capstone with two fallen stones underneath. This was originally placed in the south-eastern end of a long mound which was described in the 1920s as being around 230ft long.

Mawaki

An ancient village in Honshū with a timber circle, three totem poles and wooden floored burial pits. The timber circle was reconstructed in 2011. There is a museum attached.

Jebel Qurma Petroglyphs

The Jebel Qurma range contains thousands of petroglyphs accompanied with safaitic script. They are being studied by the The Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project, which I have linked to from our page for more information.

Final Rundown of the Top 15 Standing Stones in the UK - with competition winners

The full rundown of the Top 15 single standing stones (and pairs) in the UK according to you, our Megalithic Portal visitors and contributors is here. Also announcing the two winners of the competition. I have added all the sites as entries in my visit log.

Bach-sylw

Two newly discovered standing stones - well done Couplands!. Two standing stones with almost perfect east-west alignment. Eastern stone ~2m tall and the western being ~1.5m tall. Alignment carried to the east comes in at ~90m north of Gwal y Filiast and to the west, cutting through the middle of the various known standing stones and barrows near Maen-hîr Farm.

Pistyll Chapel Font

Within the delightful Pistyll Chapel, Gwynedd there is an beautifully carved font - described by COFLEIN in the following terms: "Of particular importance is the C11 cylindrical font with an Anglo-Scandanavian 2-strand chain interlace design to the exterior of the bowl. Set on later base." The chapel itself was on the pilgrim route to Bardsey Island, about 8 miles walk from the Well and chapel dedicated to St Beuno at Clynnog.

Northern Earth 175 is Out Now

In this issue: • Porthole Stones in Britain - Porthole entrances, familiar in European megalithic culture, less so in Britain. Dr Karen F Pierce looks at a couple in the Cotswolds
• The Neanderthal’s Stonehenge - Mark Greener presents evidence for more cultural
sophistication in our forebears than generally assumed
• Say it with rosettes - Daisy wheel, hexafoil, rosette – one symbol may deter
threat, or express affection, as Anthea Hawdon explains
• The Raven of Bradfield - Dr Simon Young comes across an unusual association
of the raven as a bogey figure in South Yorkshire
• The Ancient Custom of Baba Marta Day - Sharon Higgins reports on a charming spring custom in Bulgaria

King Stone at the Rollrights

The King Stone has come in at #6 in our rundown of favourite standing stones (and pairs) in Britain compiled with data from our Megalithic Portal visitors and photo contributors. See the comments on this page for Part 2 of the rundown, #10 down to #6, and in my visit blog.
Competition winners and the Top 5 will be announced tomorrow. Standing Stone in Oxfordshire, part of the Rollright Stones complex. The King Stone is thought to have been erected around 1800 BC. It stands some eight feet tall by a mound of earth, alleged centuries ago to be the remains of a prehistoric tomb, but which was only confirmed as such in the 1980s, when an old covering stone - said to be the entrance to faerie-land - was found to be the entrance to a tumulus, built around the same time as its attendant monolith.