Sighthill Solstice Sunset

I managed to attend Duncan’s talk about the Sighthill stones on the summer solstice, followed up by a walk up to the circle to see the sunset. I’ve certainly never seen so many folk at the circle before, and we were blessed with clear skies for the event. I was keen to see how the real thing compared with my Stellarium landscape, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was pretty accurate. Here’s a picture of things in Stellarium:

Sighthill solstice sunset in Stellarium

…and here’s the real thing, taken looking over the centre stone, which of course you don’t see in the Stellarium landscape (because the camera was sitting on it). There are too many people about to see the marker stone, but trust me it was  bang on the money:

Sighthill summer solstice sunset 2010

Duncan seemed pleased with all the attention, and was also glad of the clear skies as it is quite rare to get a clear sunset in June in Glasgow. Here he is with the setting sun casting the shadow of its aligned stone onto the central stone, just as he designed it to do.

Duncan by central stone with sunset shadow

Grahame Gardner
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