The Great Stone Circles – How they Work Part 14

Submitted by JACKME on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 Page Views: 7502

**Swinside** submitted by JACKME : Midwinter at Swinside. This photo was taken on the 22/12/96 and shows the shadow of Stone 30, The Great Stone level with Stone 11, a familiar shape. Unfortunately the timing of the photo was just wrong. See The Great Stone Circles - How they Work, for further information (Vote or comment on this photo)

Midwinter Solstice - Comparing four circles

The object of this article is to demonstrate that these four Great Circles all follow the same basic system, and that it is virtually impossible to understand the workings of Stonehenge without the knowledge gained from Swinside and Castlerigg. At all these circles the Sun creates a shafts of light/shadow some minutes after First Gleam. The Great Stone provides one side of the shaft of light, with the other created by second stone. Somewhere on this line there will be also an altar shaped stone, normally of the bun shape. In addition to this alignment there are several other pairs of stones in parallel. A similar situation occurs at the sunset with the edge of the shadow from the Great Stone touching a target stone across the circle.

We can never see the First Gleam of the midwinter solstice as it was at the time of construction, because the sun does not now go as far south as it used to by about 1 degree. We therefore have to make optical adjustments. These adjustments are all very obvious once this fact is grasped. The time the Sun casts the operative shadows is still in the original place, but it takes a little longer to get there and is a little higher, which affects the length of the shadows.

I will begin by discussing the rising sun at each place first, and then move on to the sunsets so that you can see the same principles working at all of the sites with adjustments for the skyline.

Midwinter sunrise at Swinside

(See the Diagram of numbers here). You need to be there for 8.15 am. The best view is from the little pointed Stone (49) through the Gateway or Ceremonial Entrance (Stones 18, 19, 20, 21 with Stone 18a buried in the middle), making it a standard triple. The Sun shines past the Great Stone (30) to cast a shadow past Stone 40 (f) to a small bun altar (Stone 41).

The sunrise can also be seen from Stone 54 over Stone 16 today. It would have been over Stone 15 at the time of construction, with Stone 17 making up another Triple. At all of these sites there are several pairs of stones aligning to the sunrise during its various stages.

Midwinter sunrise at Castlerigg

(See the Diagram of numbers here). The sun rises much later at Castlerigg as it has to climb over Helvelyn and cannot be seen before 9.15am. Here the Gateway Triple is very wide being Stones 14, 15, 16, when viewed from Stone 34 over 15. The width of this triple is probably due to the slope of Helvelyn, so it is not obviously the ceremonial entrance.

This photo shows the sunrise over Stone 17 from the Double 30/31 at the midwinter solstice, demonstrating one of the number of pairs of stones lining to the MWSR. As the Sun rises it would have cast a shadow from the Great Stone (Stone 21) onto the bun altar (Stone 27) as seen here.

Midwinter sunrise at Arbor Low.

The Circle here is sited on a slope so that the Sun is not seen until it is above the crest and the frequent morning murk. Observation of the Sun is further delayed by a field wall, but I am unable to say exactly how long the delay is (The only figure on my notes is 8.29am, but does not say what it refers to). Stand on the stump of Stone H, that is outside of the circle in the southern entrance, and your shadow will hit Stone 27. The Great Stone - the big stone that is half way down to your left. At the time of construction I expect it would have just caught the inside edge of it, when it was standing, and then the shaft of light would have gone on to strike another smaller stone of an altar shape, but as they are all fallen it is difficult to say which one.

After this go to the fallen Cove Stone A (the large unbroken stone at the northern end of the cove) and stand on it. Your shadow will hit the wall under the trees by the car park. In order to see this you will probably have move about, unless the Sun is very strong, as at this distance one‚s shadow gets rather indistinct. This effect is much easier to see at Avebury where the Cove acts in the same way, casting its shadow to the stones in the outer circle, as shown in Article 3b on 7th June 2005.

Midwinter sunrise at Stonehenge.

(See Diagram here) The sunlight passes the Great Trilithon and casts a shadow a long way. Photographs show it at or near the car park fence. Could it have gone to the postholes under the car park?

The sun would have risen by the edge of Stone 51, with light touching Stone160b, a large bun shaped altar, sometime before the lintel shadows become level with the top of Blue Stone 71 (if this was standing) or 72 some time after sunrise.

Midwinter sunset at Swinside.

Here the sunset is very early due to the high skyline to the West so you will need to be there for 2.45pm. As can be seen in the top photo, the Great Stone’s (30’s) shadow now does not now reach Stone 12, a leaning table top altar type. It is likewise at Castlerigg, so perhaps it was never meant to.

I carried out an experiment with a board of the correct height for the fallen tall stone 40a and watched the shadow move around until it reached Stone 57, the North Stone, also a bun altar. It would have covered this at the same time as the ground shadow reached the base of the stone. This photo was taken a little earlier as the next one had lost the light strength.

The Full Orb would also have been seen over the lying Midwinter Stone (Stone 37), a beautifully worked lying dagger shape, from Stone 5, a fallen and damaged diamond shaped stone.

Midwinter sunset at Castlerigg.

Again we see the shadow of the Great Stone nearly touching a stone opposite.This photograph was taken at the midwinter sunset on the 18th December 2002. The shadow from Stone 21, the Great Stone has not reached Stone 40, the bun altar at the corner of the Sanctuary.

This photo of the sunset from Stone 1 to near Stone 29 taken on the 31st December 1994 well demonstrates the problem of water logging due to mass visitors sealing the surface. I suggested that a narrow drainage trench was dug and used as a chance for archaeological observation. It was turned down for two reasons. Firstly only the stones themselves are under the control of English Heritage, the ground around them is controlled by the National Trust, and secondly, because the advisory archaeologist did not like the idea of a narrow trench, so did not push the idea. Sadly the flood water has now caused a cist to fall in, judging by its size and shape.

Midwinter sunset at Arbor Low.

At Arbor Low the western bank hides the winter sunsets from the circle stones, and in order to see the distant skyline, it is necessary to stand on the bank, when the sun aligns with the expected stones as seen on FORS. This photo taken on the 4th January 2003 shows the Last Gleam past the edge of Stone 27 The Great Stone. On brilliant evenings like this one when standing on the bank, the sun can be seen going down into the dip in the distant skyline past the Great Stone over the stump of Stone 15 (the stone in the east of the circle broken into three pieces), hidden in the snow.

This suggests to me that the circle was laid out before the bank was erected (the dating of the erection of the stones is problematical) which was done to give observations while the Sun was higher in the sky and above the evening murk. They will have used the existing stone layout possibly when the Sun was some 11, 22 or 45 minutes before true sunset. Unfortunately I have no observation of timing at this site at the present time.

Midwinter sunset at Stonehenge.

Within the circle of Blue Stones at Stonehenge‚ there are five stones of traditional shapes, Stones 46, 47, 48, 49, & 31, four of which 46 to 49 can be seen in this photograph over the bun altar (stone 160b). These can not be seen from the area of the Heel Stone, so can have nothing to do with the midsummer sunrise. They do however receive shafts of light/shadows from the midwinter sunset and the sunset at FORS. This occurs during the time when the general public are allowed into the site and so has not been viewed, as it is impossible to allow anyone into the centre while visitors are kept out. It may now be possible to prove this with a mini camera concealed within the circle and to be fair I have not asked English Heritage if this would be permissible.

These five stones also act as a side stepping base for observing the Moon Northern Sector setting as at Castlerigg. I have only seen one setting from Stone 49 on the night of the summer Solstice party, with a thousand heads in the way of the final setting Moon. At midwinter I think that the shaft of light through the Trilithon, would have hit Stone 48, and the Last Gleam at FORS would have struck Stone 31. This photo shows the edge of stone 49 (half Heel Stone), 31 and 150, 32 not part of the Blue Stone ring with bun altar 160c in foreground.

At midwinter at the time of construction the shaft of light past the southern edge of Stone 55 (f) is expected to have struck the Slaughter Stone. Unfortunately we will never see this now as the sun does not set far enough South. This photograph (link to Photo 902) shows the Slaughter Stone with the gap between Stones 1 and 2.

I hope this article demonstrates that all these circles are based on the same principles with variation to suit the sites, and I regret that I have not got photos of exactly the same occurrence happening at each site. This has only taken 13 years so far, and at the beginning I had no idea how things worked so missed many chances, and took many wrong photos.

I will not be publishing any more articles before April, when I hope to continue with more on how the ancients could have worked out the construction, and the interface with the Sun and Moon observations. There will also be a hypothesis that there is a North/South line running through the West Cumbrian Circles, and possibly more on Stonehenge depending on my luck with the weather for observations over the Equinox in the area.

Contents page for the whole series is here

Jack Morris-Eyton sadly passed away in 2011 but his expanded research has been posthumously published in a book: Stone Circle Calendars: A New Understanding.

Note: This is the eighteenth of a series of previously unpublished articles by retired farmer, Jack Morris-Eyton.

Are you planning a visit to Stonehenge, Swinside, Castlerigg or Arbor Low for the winter solstice? If so Jack tells you what to look out for in his latest article on observations at midwinter.

Contributor Bio for JACKME: Based in CUMBRIA, contributing since 2004. Favourite site: SWINSIDE. Occupation: RETIRED.

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