Stonehenge’s altar stone was brought all the way from Scotland
The nearest source of the altar stone at the centre of Stonehenge has finally been identified – and it is at least 750 kilometres away in north-east Scotland
By Michael Le Page
14 August 2024
The altar stone lies inside Stonehenge’s two big rings of stones
Gavin Hellier/roberthrding/Getty Images
A study of the 6-tonne altar stone at the heart of Stonehenge has shown that it was almost certainly brought there from north-east Scotland, much further than any other stone in the megalithic structure.
“All of us were stunned. We couldn’t believe it,” says geologist Anthony Clarke at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
How the altar stone was transported all the way from Scotland to the south of England isn’t known, but it is most likely to have been brought by sea, says Clarke. There is evidence that people at this time were making sea journeys, he says.
Advertisement
Read more
Story of epic human voyages across Polynesia revealed by genetics
Stonehenge is thought to have been built over about 1500 years, starting around 5100 years ago. It consists of an outer circle of large stones weighing around 25 tonnes each, known as sarsens, and an inner ring and altar made of smaller stones generally of around 3 tonnes, known as bluestones. The term bluestone just means any rock that isn’t a sarsen – the bluestones are made of various kinds of rock.
“The thing that’s unique about Stonehenge is the distance that stones have been transported,” says geologist Richard Bevins at Aberystwyth University, UK. Most stone circles are made from rocks found within a kilometre of the site, says Bevins.
