<< Feature Articles >> The Great Stone Circles – How they Work Part 11
Submitted by JACKME on Friday, 18 November 2005 Page Views: 5172
Alternative Archaeology
The Standing Stones, Kirksanton
This week I shall turn my attention to one of the best pairs of standing stones in the UK near Millom in Cumbria, known as the Standing Stones of Kirksanton or The Giants Grave (GR: SD136811). These were never part of a stone circle as some would try to say, but are a very accurate moon observation site as is indicated by both stones being of the pointed moon type, as discussed in one of my previous articles. Most pairs of standing stones have one pointed moon type and one with a rather flatter top indicating the sun. The further stone is marked with a cupmark, which plays an important role in a lunar alignment on this site. Nicol Wood can be seen to the left on the skyline with Lacra to the right.On December 26th 2004 I had an extremely lucky day at Kirksanton. I went to watch the moonset close to its Most Northerly Standstill position in the morning. The setting moon lined with the bottom face of the western stone on its eastern side. The upper half of this face could align for the Moon Major Standstill Most Southern Rise, but this still has not been observed. The Moon gradually faded into the morning murk, but was visible slightly longer than the photograph shows.
Whilst watching the moon slowly setting, the sun came up behind me. This photo shows the sun well up at full orb over the village. I wondered if the setting sun would line back to the cupmark in the other stone as suggested by Dougie Scott, so I returned that evening but it was nowhere near in line, setting over some slightly higher ground by Southfield Farm (SD128806). No face of either stone aligned to it. However, upon turning around to my delight I discovered the full moon just clear of Nicol Wood (SD141816) on the side of Lacra. This must be an extremely rare occurrence for anyone to see the full moon rising and setting very near to both its Northern Extremes, within a few minutes of both the rising and setting sun, on a day so close to the Solstice. Mathematicians please calculate. This photo shows the full moon between the stones having risen in Nicol Wood on the left.
A few days later I went up into Nicol Wood and eventually found a shaped rock or standing stone in the middle of a gorse bush which was protecting it from people and the cows. I could not get a clear view of the standing stones through the trees so moved down the hill to where it became clear that this rock lined through the stones at a very narrow angle.
To watch the near full moon very close to its MMaSMSS setting I had to wait until the 19th July 2005 at 1.30am, when the very important alignment occurred. The moon when viewed from the cupmark on the eastern stone was seen touching the northern edge of the western stone at the same time as it touched the sea. It was very difficult to take this photo as my old film camera only has a horizontal viewfinder and the ground was very wet so I had to squat with my head as near the cupmark as possible and click. Unfortunately I must have wobbled a bit as two out of the three photos failed, missing the moon completely and then the usual cloud spoilt things. The resulting photo is quite poor as the cloud has discoloured the moon, with the lower light being the reflection off the sea, but nevertheless it demonstrates this wonderful alignment.
By this date I had tried on several mornings to observe the midsummer sunrise from this site, without luck due to cloud. I had already watched the midsummer sunset on the 9th July 2004 as seen in this photograph when the sun was seen to go down besides a small hillock known as Salt Hill, again no face of either stone lined to it. For this reason I believe that the ancients were not concerned with sight lines to the sunsets at Kirksanton and that this site is wholly a moon site, as both stones are moon shaped, and not one moon and one sun shaped stone, as is often seen.
The points of the stones align to between 32 to 33 degrees, which is the same angle as seen at Swinside and is assumed to point to the Invisible MMaSMNR that can never have been seen because of the hills in the way, probably at a very much earlier date than the construction of either Swinside or these stones.
Contents page for the whole series is here
Note: This is the fifteenth of a series of previously unpublished articles by retired farmer, Jack Morris-Eyton.
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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