America's Stonehenge

This spot in New Hampshire has been on my list to visit since I read an article in Yankee Magazine about it.  [Latest article here.] 

Once called Mystery Hill, it's been open to the public since 1958.  Though you can download an app to give you an oral tour, we opted for the printed version.  The labels and trail have the tired look of having been in place since the 50s, but despite that it was a fascinating walk through some history.  Questions remain as to how ancient it really is.

[Disclaimer: In loading these photos, the new blogger has mixed the order up!  Argh! I've tried to put them in order to label them with the tour guide map but I don't know how successful I've been.]

Many of the structures have some significance to the astronomical alignments.  This one above and below is on the February 1st and November 1st alignment.

The rest of these are out of order but you get the sense of the magnitude of effort to lift these stones into place.

The above stone was labeled the sacrificial table with the grooves carved around the perimeter.  Sacrificing what?  Or was it something colonists made?

Below it's the horizontal stone with legs.

In the viewing platform you can look in all the directions and see standing stones.

This standing stone is in alignment with the center of the site.  You can see the viewing platform in the background.  I don't know whether this is for summer or winter solstice or an equinox. It is quite impressive to see all the points in the distance from the viewing platform.

Google America's Stonehenge to read more about this site.  Fascinating to consider what civilization created it originally.

Scotland - More Standing Stones

I first wrote about standing stones here.  I mentioned in that post how interested I was in seeing them.

Let me share some of the others we found.

This cross though not as ancient as other standing stones is a unique 18 ft high Runic Cross that stands in the apse in a Ruthwell Church about 10 miles from Dumfries, Scotland.  To enter the church the sign on the door said to go to the church manse.  There was a little box with a large skeleton key that opened the church.

 

The Lonely Planet guide said this writing in a Saxon runic alphabet is one of the earliest examples of English language literature.

The inscription was written by Caedmon in the seventh century AD.

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That same afternoon we found the Torhouse Stone Circle outside of Wigtown.

This well preserved ruin dates from the 2nd millennium BC.

It's fenced off from farm fields.

Across the road were these 3 stones - totally out of place in the field but probably moved there in ancient times.

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When we visited JM Barrie's home town of Kirriemuir and experiencing the camera obscura he donated to the town we were directed to this standing stone.

I had Dan stand next to it so you can see the height of it.

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We learned about cup stones when we visited the Crannog Centre and were shown how these holes could have been made.

Why stones have them is not known.

If you were walking and came upon this stone you'd probably think like I did that its made by erosion.  These cups were made by humans 3000 to 5000 years ago.

I still have so much more to share.  I hope I can do that before we're off on another trip to Europe in 2018.

Tuesday Treasures

WATW

Inspired Sunday