All our measurements, excavations, all our arguments about dating – these are attempts to tell a truthful story about the stones. However, there are times when this work feels as if we are butting in on an intimate lithic conversation we will never be party to. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England. Probably the world's most famous neolithic site, in use since approx 3000BC. Recent theories have it as a place of healing akin to a hospital, which accounts for the hundreds of burial mounds around its perimeter.
#stonehenge #neolithic #ukhistory #ancient
Newcastle Emlyn Castle, South West Wales. Built around 1240, local legend has it Merlin's prediction of a Welsh dragon rising against the invading English came true here. An archer shot the dragon and used his red cape to lure it into the nearby river, which runs red to this day.
#dragons #folklore
Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex, England. Once believed neolithic, now thought to have been cut in the C16th. 235 feet (72 m) tall, and locally referred to as "the green man", the figure holds two staffs and is designed to look in proportion from below the hillside.
#folklore #ukhistory
"The Whispering Knights" deserve special attention for having the coolest name in UK neolithic history! I only seem to have a quite distant pic of them. They were originally a "portal dolmen" burial chamber consisting of four upright stones and a large, now fallen, capstone.
Avebury, Wiltshire, UK. One of the richest ancient sites in England, built between 2850-2200BC, a henge (still visible as a circular bank), three stone circles and a burial complex - not to mention the world's only pub within a stone circle!
#ukhistory #ancienthistory #ancient #neolithic #avebury
The Rollright Stones, North of Chipping Norton, England. Dating between 3500-1500BC, the site comprises a stone circle, burial chamber and standing stones assembled by neolithic peoples, who met on this site as early as 4500BC.
#ancient #history #ukhistory #neolthic #stonecircle
A word not used nearly enough about standing stones is 'conversation'. For it is clear that they are often in conversation with each other and always in conversation with both the land and us. The Long Neolithic is never not talking to the now. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday
St Winwaloe "The Church of the Storms", Gunwalloe, England. One of Cornwall's oldest sites of continuous worship, home to a 5th century church, which was replaced by the Normans.
St Winwaloe was a Celtic patron of fertility (one of the "Phallic Saints") who lived during the C5th.
#history #churches
Houghton House, Ampthill, England is the shell of a 17th-century mansion reputedly the inspiration for the ‘Palace Beautiful’ in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
Built around 1615 for Mary, Dowager Countess of Pembroke on land granted to her by James I, and dismantled in 1797.
#ukhistory #history
Castlerigg Stone Circle, Keswick, England. Constructed 3200-2500BC, on a natural plateau surrounded by many of the highest peaks in Cumbria: Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Grasmoor and Blencathra. One of the oldest stone circles in Europe.
#ukhistory #lakedistrict #stonecircle #ancientsites #stoneage
Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, England. The historical Walton was lost to the sea in July 1798 recorded on a Canon's stall in St Paul's Cathedral with the inscription "Consumpta per Mare". Objects and seaglass from the old village, now 8 miles offshore, washes up in large quantities #ukhistory #folklore
St Madron Holy Well and Altar, situated about a mile to the north of the village of Madron, Cornwall, England. A 12-14c Chapel, damaged during the English Civil War, built on the site of a much older Celtic structure.
#ukfolklore #ukancienthistory #ancientsites #ukhistory #cornwall
Lud's Church, a deep chasm penetrating bedrock created by a massive landslip on the hillside above Gradbach, Staffordshire, England. Secret place of worship during the early 15th century, believed to be the mythical Green Chapel ft in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
#ukfolklore #folklore #myth
Lanyon Quoit, Cornwall. Neolithic dolmen over chambered long barrow in Cornwall, England, 2 miles southeast of Morvah. It collapsed in a storm in 1815 and re-erected 9 years later, with a different appearance as shown in 1769 etching
#ukfolklore #ukancienthistory #ancientsites #ukhistory #cornwall