What are your views on 'standing stones'?

Question

Scotland and Ireland, England and Wales, are full of circular monuments of vertically standing stones. There is still a big debate as to how old they are and what they were used for. What do you believe? Are you just going on stuff you read off the net or have you seen and touched them for yourselves?
Thank you.

Answer 1

I have visited dozens of stone circles, single standing stones, and chambered cairns in Britain, Ireland & Brittany.
The druids didn't have anything to do with setting them up--all of them date between 1100-4000 BC,long before the druid cult emerged in the Iron Age. Stonehenge was a ruin by the time the druids came to Britain,having been abandoned in about 1100 BC,probably due to a climactic deterioration which meant the sun no longer shone as often on feast days and that more-constant rains washed the goodness from the soils. the people must have though the gods had abandoned them,and there may have been famine or plague--the population dropped dramatically in those years between the bronze and iron ages.
Many of these sites are aligned on celestial events--midwinter and midsummer solstices are common: Stonehenge (midsummer sunrise, midwinter sunset), Newgrange -midwinter sunrise, maes Howe-midwinter sunset. Some are lunar based, particularly the recumbent stone circles in Scotland, where,every 19 years, the moon looks as if it rolls across the downlying central stones. The Aubrey holes at Stonehenge may also represent a lunar year.
However, the celestial observations were probably of a ritual nature rather than scientific. There is a lot of evidence pointing to an ancestral death-cult at the time of the megaliths. Wood was for houses, for the living; stone was the permanence of gods, spirits & the ancestral dead.The first phase ofStonehenge may have been a wooden mortuary hut where bodies were exposed to rot; likewise the Aubrey holes first held posts which,when decayed,were replaced with 200 human cremations. Even as you stand at Stonehenge today you can see that every surrounding rise is capped by a burial mound--this was the land of the dead--the living lived 2 miles away at Durrington (now thought to be the largest neolithic setllement in western Europe.)
I just live down the road from Stonehenge and recently a fallen standing stone near me was excavated. The burnt bones of a very tall man (well over 6 feet) were found under the stone along with a quartz amulet that may have been imported from the Alps. Again, the idea of a burial under or near the foot of these stones is probably to impart the spirit into the stone,wher it would dwell eternally.

Answer 2

I visited the UK a few years back and had the opportunity to see and touch many stones. I was especially draw to Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney. I am also aware that all these structures are not constructed of huge stones or are they all rings (Hill o' Many Stanes). Single standing stones are literally everywhere. Not all are "aligned" to yearly phenomena. But my take on those that do have a correspondences to a winter or summer solstice is not that they are a calendar so much as a placement to honor the events. I do believe that solar events are important turning points for ancient culture, but they still would have known when they occur without "consulting" the stones. (And, no, I do not believe that Druids built these things. They only recognized their grandeur.) Megalithic structures also appear in roughly the same time periods world wide. Why and how is still a mystery.

Answer 3

Without the technology we have today, the building of such monuments must have been a phenomenal task. Its my belief these structures were erected to perform some of the earliest acts of worship to give thanks for certain (still unknown) things. These could range from good crop yields to fertility. Fact is we,ll never know.
The earliest forms of worship were soon assimilated into the mainstream religions that exist today. It seems man has always looked to Gods or Deitys to try and justify an existence that really has no meaning or purpose.
Its my opinion that we could learn a great deal from these early cultures, but just how that can be achieved is beyond a mere mortal like myself.
I,ve resigned myself to being a Plathiest. I worship nothing but believe in the power of the cosmos. We came from nothing and ultimately we end up nothing.
Shadows & dust.

Answer 4

having been to the standing stones in Orkney and the Ring of Brodgar I was in awe. It was disappointing to find out that the standing stones had been moved from their original place by the Victorians because they looked better in the new form! So many theories- calendars, worship sites, longest day, shortest day, sacrificial sites (both human and animal). The Ring of Brodgar is older than Stonehenge and believed to be the footprint for Stonehenge.
I remember the stones being warm to the touch and a feeling of peace. Probably my imagination but i felt so calm when I was there. Going back soon and cannot wait.

Answer 5

I've never actually been to any of the monoliths and megaliths you're talking about but the idea intrigues me. i've done quite alot of research on them and everything i've found suggests that they were set up by the ancient Celts as meeting places and/or monuments. Stonehenge, in England is by far the most famous but just 8 miles away there is another megalithic structure laid out in an identical pattern to stonehenge but made of wood. now concrete markers stand in the place of huge wooden pillars. these megaliths, were druid alters, meeting places, fesival grounds, or shrines. each has a solar event associated with it as well. the sun shines on a certain stone in Stonehenge every year at the Winter Solstice, and the same pillar at Woodhenge on the Summer Solstice. Stonehenge symbolizes death, and Woodhenge (i know i know, stupid name but thats what it's called) represents new life. each standing stone in Scotland and Ireland has a purpose, even if it is just a simple monument to a great victory in battle. and none of them were put there by aliens.

Also, the Druids believed that circles had power in themselves, power for protection or life or something else. but Stonehenge has a tremendous level of electromagnetic energy surrounding it and running through the ground, so it's possible that the site was used for Druidic rituals and sacrifice. many of the monoliths around Scotland and Ireland have the same electromagnetic phaenomena around them. it doesnt betray the presence of spirits necesserily but does in fact show that some extrordinary event happened there.

Answer 6

Yes, I've seen many of them. Near where I live, the front wall of a person's garden was built around one. It's not really known what they were used for, but they probably had some religious significance.

By the way, lokidrew, the Blarney stone is a stone in one of the walls of Blarney Castle. It has nothing to do with standing stones or megaliths of any kind.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I've been to dozens of stone circles in Ireland. They are usually astrologically aligned so they seem to be calendars, knowing when to plant crops by when Venus passes the third stone or whatever. They are often on ley lines, connected with other sacred sites. They were ceremonial as well as practical. There's usually a great energy there. Some are pre-Celtic which means they could have been placed by the De Danaan, the mythical race of higher beings, they had their Druids as well as the Celts.

Answer 9

They were certainly a sight for focus and congregating. We also know they were not set up by the Celtic tribes. They had a habit of adopting or taking over sacred sights and fortified places. The Romans went one better and destroyed some and built their own temples on others i.e. Bath.
I am fortunate enough to remember a time when you could run freely around places like Stone Henge and the Avebury Ring.
I daresay they were used for ritual, etc. But it is also likely, like the church yards the post dated them, that they were places for celebration and gathering.

Answer 10

I went to stone henge and I'm from U.S.A. I found it inspiring,but; I must admit, a Friend of mine(now deceased) gave me a small bag of crystals to leave there.(2 small bags one to scatter and one to bring back)I tried to flick them without being noticed out under the ropes that keep the grass on sight.A young fellow from Germany with a back pack picked one up.I asked(as if I didn't know) what he had found,and he showed me one of my crystals.he thought it might have been from locals at night.This was 1992 april. I believe it was what it still is,a gathering place for people from far away to get together, for locals to worship,and for people like me to make mischief.