Page 14 - The Flickering Cauldron Magazine - June 2022

have experienced these magnificent stones and never knew!. (We’ll explain that later).
It’s not a world-famous site like Stonehenge but maybe it should be as it’s actually older! The stones themselves predate those at Stonehenge by roughly 2,000 years - wow!.
The instantly recognisable stones of Stonehenge were erected between 2400 and 2200 BC. The Callanish Stones consist of a cruciform layout with a central stone circle which was built in approximately 3000 BC.
In reality, of course, whilst we can roughly date the evidence from when the sites were first settled, we will never know for sure just when the stones were erected.
The Callanish standing stones are located on the West coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides chain of islands, off the far North West coast of Scotland.
They are the largest formation of several ancient sites close to the town of Callanish. Not only are they the oldest rocks in Britain, but they are also some of the oldest rocks in the world.
As with any prehistoric monuments or stone formations, we can only theorise on the actual purpose of their construction.
The stone circle consists of 13 stones. It’s less than 38 feet in diameter, so it’s really quite small when compared to other formations.
The nearby stone circle referred to as Callanish II is over double that width, but consists of only a few stones. To put this into perspective, we refer again to Stonehenge which is 330 feet in diameter.
However, there are no less than five (straightish) rows of stones that lead to the perimeter of the stone circle, but interestingly not to its centre, and they are from roughly the four points of the compass.
In order to appreciate the size of this wonderful monument, coming from the North, there are two somewhat parallel lines of 19 stones forming an avenue that stretches over 270 feet.
From the South, there are five stones remaining over a distance of roughly 90 feet. The line of stones from the West has only four stones left and is just 43 feet and last but not least is the line of stones from the East consisting of just five stones in a line stretching 77 feet.
Within the circle is a burial tomb which was added much later.
Much more fascinating is the single standing stone monolith at the centre of the circle. Whilst it’s not at the exact centre now, we will presume it was originally. It’s close to 16 feet high and just over 5 feet wide and just under 10 inches in depth. (This really should conjure recognisable images with many of you by now).
This central monolith resembles the shape of a ship's rudder. Or does it?
That’s just one question of many.
What instantly springs to mind is the fact that the Isle of Lewis is not that easily accessible even today, so why was such a significant monument built in a relatively inaccessible place?
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Stonte from Callinsh III