Four Stunning Stone Circles ( besides Stonehenge )

                                    *****Drombeg  Stone Circle , Ireland****
Dormbeg Stone Circle in County Cork is a tight little colection of 9 meters (30 )feet in diameter. It's of a type known as a recumbent stone because the largest stone lies on its side flanked by two smaller ones.This is deliberte ; the stone didn't fall down. What this means is anyone's guess, although the local claim that it's a "Druid's Alter" is fanciful because the circle dates  to the Bronze Age , Radiocarbon dating on a burial  found in the center of the circle yieled a date between 150 BC and 130 AD.

                        The Ring of Brodgar , Orkney Isles , Scotland
The wind swept Orkney , Isles north of Scotland are covered in prehistoric remains.  The Ring of Brodney , is built of thin, tall stones on a narrow isthmus between  two lochs. Its architects obviously had an eye for dramatic setting. It dates to between 2500 and 2000 BC . In the northern most stone circle in the British Isles and also the third largest at 104 meters ( 341 ft ) in diameter. Like many major circles it's part of a network of sites, with tombs and single standing stones  scattered in the area  around it . Legend has it that the Vikings were so impressed with the Ring of Bridgar when they arrived in the nieth century AD that they worship their gods here. Some Viking Runes carved into the stones may suppoet this theory.

****Avebury , England************

Bigger than Stonehenge  , the site of Avebury just  17 miles north of Stonehenge     consists of a massive stone circle 331.6 meters ( 1088 ft ) in diameter with two avenues of stones leading to a pair of smaller stones  circles. Construction began around 2900 BC  , roughly the same time as its neighbor  . Other monuments , such as the mysterious artificial mound os Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long barrow, an ancient tomb., an easy walk away. During the  Middle Ages the locals got religion and decided  this pagan monument needed to go. They knocked over several stones until one fell over  and crushed one of the vandals. Everone thought this was just a legend  until modern archaeologists dug up a fallen stone and found the skeleton of a man underneath with  some stone 14th century coins in his pocket !   

                          *******Rollright Stones , England **************

This stone circle makes a un day hike from Oxford . Most stone circles are pretty small. This one is only 33 meters (108 feet ) in diameter but has some interesting details. One stone has a hole through which you can see  a tall monolith called the King Stone in a nearby field. A nearby dolmen  ( a small roofed tomb of stone ) is called the Whispering Knights. Legend says the circle and these two outlying monuments are a king and his knights who were turned to stone  by a witch. Actually the circle and monolith were built by prehistoric people between 2500  to 2000 BC. The  Whispering Knights dates to about 3500 BC . In prehistoric times, the presence of one monument  encourged people to build more.

Every year thousands ot tourists flock to Stonehenge, the iconic stone circle on Salisbury Plain, England . While so much attention is focused on this site , especially with the recent discovery of another monument near Stonehenge, people often forget there's thousand more stone circles  in the British Isles  and continental Europe. Built during the Neolithic starting about 5,000 years ago, these sites are beautiful and have a lot of strange folklore over the centuries, like the mistaken belief that they were built by Druids or giants .

My Spin : Maybe ..just maybe, one day I will get to see  the stone circles...watch closely you may just see  my PiC and myself strolling along the pathway  looking at  the past . So come on and join us. It will be a hoot.

Kicking back and having fun....