<< Feature Articles >> Tom Bullock reports from his biggest prehistoric field-trip
Submitted by Tom_Bullock on Monday, 04 July 2016 Page Views: 20728
Neolithic and Bronze AgeType: Stone CircleInternal Links:
Tom Bullock writes: I have, as of June 2004 visited 1233 stone circles and rows throughout the UK, Ireland and Brittany. [and many more since but we never had the chance to tot them up - MegP Ed] This is the result of a fascination with them ever since, fifteen years ago, I was granted a Sabbatical as a lecturer in Astronomy to investigate the extent to which astronomical alignments were incorporated into their layout and construction.
During my first soujourn in England in 1989, I limited myself to those sites that were commonly known about, appeared on road atlases, and were located next to roads: i.e., those providing easy access.
But after my Sabbatical report was submitted and published by my college, I was unable to put the subject out of my mind. So I returned to the UK and Ireland to visit additional ones a few years later, and so it has been almost every year since. With each return, I am challenged to visit and record the increasingly more vague, difficult to find or access, and/or remote. This year, I am on a 3-month attempt to finish up visiting the remaining sites in my database that have any degree of reliability as far as knowing there is something on the ground to actually find.
I began this year’s research [2004] with my first ever visits to sites on the Channel Islands and Shetland Isles. I then began working my way northward from Edinburgh to find those sites I had been unable to visit in 2000 because of the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak at the time. I just completed working my way down through the Western Isles for the third time (except for Barra, which was a first for me), and I am presently working through the Inner Isles (Mull, Ulva, Tiree, Islay, Jura). I will continue working my way southward until I run out of time or money or both.
Soon after I began doing research on stone circles and rows, it became increasingly obvious there was no one resource for obtaining the coordinates, descriptions, measurements and photographs of the 2000+ sites.
So I took it upon myself to accumulate such a database, and make it available to the public. That goal culminated in the production of a CD-ROM in 2000 that contained photographs and data for the 500+ sites I had visited up to that time. Last year, 2003, I teamed up with Andy Burnham from the Megalithic Portal and we co-produced the second edition of the CD-ROM with over 900 sites represented.
Upon return to California in July 2004, I will add the sites I have visited on this trip and incorporate them into that second edition. By then I estimate there will be a total of about 1500 sites on it.
I venture to guess that I am in possession of the most comprehensive and accurate photographic, descriptive and location (coordinates) database of stone circles in existence.
In the process of accumulating this database, I have learned some important lessons that may be of help to others wanting to do their own field research:
1. Just because an OS Map doesn’t show anything at the coordinates of a site you have been provided doesn’t mean there is nothing there of importance or interest. There are many omissions on the Maps.
2. Conversely, just because the OS Map indicates something at a particular place doesn’t mean there will be something there to see and measure. The Maps are not always kept up to date as regards sites that have been destroyed.
3. What the OS Map indicates is at a particular site is not necessarily what you will find there. A ‘Standing Stone’ on the Map may be a stone row in which one stone is standing and others are prostrate in an obvious alignment that can be measured. ‘Standing Stones’ may be, in fact, a stone circle in which the stones are somewhat askew but obvious to the informed researcher that they formed a circle at one time.
4. Coordinates and descriptions of circles and rows can sometimes be unreliable, so it is important to search around if you find yourself at the provided coordinates but unable to see anything that resembles a circle or row. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of using a GPS and a compass when doing field research. It will save you not only hours of time, but much frustration. I can tell you ghastly stories of the hours I have wasted because I was using the Map incorrectly, or I was too lazy to pull the compass out of my pocket.
5. Locals can be completely unreliable when it comes to telling you the location of sites. In fact, don’t be surprised if people who live within 200 metres of a site tell you they have no idea of anything like what you are describing to them. This very thing happened during my visit to one of the Channel Islands. There were, according to the coordinates and descriptions recorded in my database, two burial sites within the confines of a small housing area. I went into the local store, asked the two salespersons as well as the prople standing in line behind me waiting to pay for their groceries, and not a single one knew anything about them.
So I just started wandering through the area, asking anyone I encountered, and finally met a fellow who provided general directions. There it was, a rather large site (25m by 25m) stuck between two council houses! The other site was just down the road a bit, not more than 200 metres from that little store!
So, you’re asking, "What good is all of this research doing? What’s the point? Who cares, besides you?" That’s an interesting question, and I’m glad you posed it. While I have personal reasons for doing the field research (I love the British landscape, the people and the historical landmarks), there is a wider and more important consequence of having an accurate database of the sites.
They are as much a part of what makes Britain Britain as the language, the Thames, Big Ben, Scotch Whiskey, or Monty Python. They are but one of a vast number of roots from which Britain evolved over the centuries.
And wouldn’t it be a shame if they were neglected to the point of being bulldozed, pushed over or ploughed under! Many of them have suffered that very fate in modern times, it is only because no one cared, and now they are lost forever. They weren’t taking up much room, and weren’t in anyone’s way.
Read Part Two of Tom's update, and Part Three, where he visits the Isle of Fetlar, one of the smaller Shetland Isles.
Note from Andy B: The image above is of Tom Bullock photographing a round barrow in Surrey on a visit to see me in May 2011. Sadly Tom died in late June in Croatia on his latest marathon excursion. He had a heart attack just after finishing up a swim off of the Dalmatian Coast.
Tom was a retired astronomy and photography lecturer from California, and has visited more stone circles than anyone else I am aware of. He authored the Stone Circles CD-ROM that many of you will know and was a significant early contributor to the Megalithic Portal.
He will be greatly missed by his family and friends, myself included.
There will be a celebration of Tom Bullock's life to be held Sunday, August 28th at Roaring Camp's Bret Harte Hall in Felton, California.
Note: An article in memory of Tom Bullock, one of our major site and photo contributors, who died five years ago this week. Originally published in 2004 and updated in 2011
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