Standing Stones – Stuff on Celts, Druids, Standing Stones and suchlike.

Maeshowe is an exquisite feat achieved by a group of builders who lived and worked some 5,000 years ago on Orkney. The mound is 35 meters in diameter, 7 metres high inside, and despite the passage of five millennia, warm and dry within. Running off the main chamber are three cells that it appears can be sealed with stone slabs which now lie on the floor. There is also a blocking stone at the entry to the entry passage which seems to be designed so that it can only be closed from the inside. And at each Winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly into the tomb, rising in the fold of the hills of the island of Hoy opposite, and shining directly over the Barnhouse standing stone located several hundred meters away.

But is it a tomb? Variously described as a Chamber Cairn and a passage grave, the fact is that when it was excavated 1861 there was only one skull to be found inside, although it was also clear that it had also been used by the Vikings to shelter from inclement weather, and as a result, has the largest single collection of Runes in the world. But that is another story.

It seems unlikely to have been a tomb only, or at all perhaps, but for what other purpose would the people of the Orkneys put up to 100,000 man hours of work and transported stones weighing up to 30 tons? We shall never know, we can only speculate.

The site www.maeshowe.co.uk shows photographs of past winter solstices shot from inside the tomb as well as some spectacular shots taken of the interior.

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It is both surprising and stunning. As you come around the edge of Rudston church, there is the monolith, the tallest in England at 7.6 metres, with reputedly the same length buried under the ground.. It is so unexpected that the stranger can only stop and admire. Of course it predates the church by many thousands of years, and it’s presence says something very clearly.

This is a holy site, and has been for millennia. It is one of many henges, standing stones, circles and tumulus that still litter the landscape, that speak of a past now lost to us. Their silent witness tells of people who cared enough to put huge effort into constructing and erecting monoliths such as this one. But why? We can only speculate. Speculate not only about the purpose, though that is grand enough. But who organised the fetching of the stone that forms it? Who fed the labourers, who had the knowledge and skill to erect a structure that has lasted thousands of years? They clearly had the leadership, resources and commitment not out of place in a modern company. Reflect on the fact that the monolith weights some 26 tons, and was transported a distance of 10 miles to its present site, and ask yourself the question, how far have we really progressed today?