Like a rolling stone

It might be classified as a wonder of the medieval world, but there is something about Stonehenge that keeps on drawing in tourists by the thousands every single day. The iconic stone structure located on the Salisbury Plain in England has even been granted the status of a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The recent discovery of what seems like a ceremonial monument near Stonehenge has heightened interest in structures like Stonehenge even more, but Stonehenge is not alone. If that does hold interest for you, consider these archaeological sites as well scattered all across the British Isles and Mainland Europe. Some of them have gained mythical status, but all of them are popular tourist destinations.

Newgrange Burial Tomb, Ireland

Archaeologists refer to a monument such as this as a passage-grave and experts peg its year of construction as 3200 BC. If this were indeed true, it pre-dates the Pyramids at Giza by some 600 years and is elder to Stonehenge by the margin of some 1000 years. Located atop an elongated ridge on the Boyne River, the area is a great draw for tourists and a big part of Irish history. Constructed at a time when stone was the primary material used. Newgrange and its sister sites were ordained World Heritage Sites by UNESCO because of the outstanding cultural value they had to offer. Besides the formation itself, Newgrange also offers some scintillating works of megalithic art, which includes the intricate and beautiful entrance stone. Curiously, the discovery of Roman coins has driven several archaeologists into a tizzy as they ponder the ramifications of that find. Several centuries on, Newgrange continues to pique interest.

The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Isles, Scotland

The Ring of Brodgar consists of slender and tall stones based on a narrow isthmus that lies between two Scottish lochs. Its designers and constructors clearly had a flair for the more dramatic and this comes through amply in the setting. Dating back to between 2500 and 2000 BC, The Ring of Brodgar was built at a time when monuments like itself were popular in the Orkney Isles. As stone circles go, you won’t find any lying further north in the British Isles; this is as northernmost as it gets, and it’s also the third largest with a diameter of 341 feet. Some historians claim that traveling Vikings were so taken in by the Ring of Brodgar that they too worshipped their gods here, and the Viking Runes carved into the stone certainly lends credence to this hypothesis. Think about that for a moment; theVikings, pillagers and destroyers of everything in their path, found this to be so awe-inspiring that they worshipped their god here. A greater testament to its awesomeness there cannot be.

Avebury, England

Even larger than Stonehenge, yet surprisingly not as famous as the legendary stone structure, the site at Avebury is a mere 17 miles north of Stonehenge as the bird flies. Consisting of a massive stone circle spanning 1088 feet in diameter, construction of this site commenced in approximately 2900 B.C which coincides with the timeline of Stonehenge. Legend has it that the locals became deeply religious around the Middle Ages and decided to destroy this pagan defacement, but while they were knocking several stones over one fell over and crushed one of the men in the mob. It was felt that this was just a myth with nothing really concrete backing it up, but a team of modern archaeologists were excavating at the site and uncovered a skeleton complete with 14th century coins on his person crushed under a fallen stone. Tales like this and the presence of an ancient tomb at West Kennet Long Barrow make the place eerier, and perhaps more appealing, than it already was.

Rollright Stones, England

Not located far from Oxford, Rollright Stones makes up for its lack of sheer size  (it’s just a 108 feet in diameter) by showing off the elaborate details carved into it. One of the stones has a hole in it through which a neighboring monolith called the King Stone can be seen quite clearly. Another nearby site is that of the Whispering Knights. If you believe local legend, then the circle and these two outlying monuments are the remains of a king and his loyal knights that were turned into stone by a vengeful witch. If you choose to ignore the flights of fancy, then know that the circle and the monolith itself were built by prehistoric people around 2500 to 2000 B.C. The Whispering Knights was built later on around 3500 B.C, and the simple reason for the chronological difference is that the presence of one monument was sure to inspire several more being built by the locals in prehistoric times.

Drombeg Stone Circle, Ireland

Located 2.5 km due east of Glandore in Cork, the Drombeg Stone Circle (also known as the Druid’s Altar) is a recumbent stone circle perched on the edge of a rocky terrace with spectacular views of the sea shimmering in the distance. A recumbent stone circle is one where the largest stone is flat on its side and flanked by two smaller stones, a placement that is entirely planned. Of the original 17 pillars, each made from local sandstone and smoothed over in a 31 foot diameter, only 13 still stand today. Excavations carried out in 1957 and 1958 showed cremated bones in a broken earthen pot wrapped in cloth and placed near the center of the circle, and radiocarbon dating yields a date around 150 BC and 130 AD. This is peculiar since the site was found to be dating back to around 2000 B.C, or the Bronze age, and some mysteries only deepen with time. So it is with the Druid’s Altar.