Peter’s Altar Stone and mine

Map: Old Red Sandstone outcrops from the Firth of Clyde to Oban, BGS-derived, with the Clyde focus ring and the Kerrera Sandstone Formation
Two possible sources. Mine is the Firth of Clyde. Peter’s is up the coast at Oban. Neither of them is Orkney. Open in Google Earth.

Back in August I said I’d make the case for a Clyde-region Altar Stone somewhere with more room in it. This is the room.

Continue reading “Peter’s Altar Stone and mine”

Anyone but boring old nature

A robed, long-haired Merlin raises a glowing staff towards a stone lintel slung beneath an enormous timber gantry crane, while dozens of workmen haul on ropes below and sit astride the top beam at sunset
Geoffrey of Monmouth, AD 1136. Merlin, magic and machines, not muscle.

Nobody has ever wanted the boring answer. Nine hundred years of people explaining how the stones got onto Salisbury Plain, every one of them with a better version than the last, and not one of those versions has ever been “the ice put it there.”

Continue reading “Anyone but boring old nature”