Category: stone circles

archaeoastronomy, astronomy, stone circles1 Comment

Swinside and Sighthill in Stellarium

Grahame Gardner

I’ve just made two new stone circle landscapes for Stellarium, the free planetarium software. It’s been quite a while since I created a Stellarium landscape, and I’d forgotten quite how much fiddling around was involved. It does become quite time-consuming, but it’s very satisfying when you do get it to work. This time round, I used two programs that I hadn’t used before, and I actually found the process much easier than previous attempts. There are two main parts to making a landscape – the first is to create a panoramic image from a series of photographs taken from the … Continue reading Swinside and Sighthill in Stellarium

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A Labyrinth For Glasgow

Grahame Gardner

(and a stone circle too!) There have been some considerable developments to Glasgow City Council’s plan to redevelop Sighthill park into an athlete’s village for the 2018 Youth Olympics. Having lost their bid to host the event, the athlete’s village idea has been abandoned but the Council are still planning to proceed with a housing development in the area, necessitating the removal of the stone circle. However, largely as a result of pressure from the community and discussions between circle builder Duncan Lunan and the Council, a compromise agreement has been reached whereby the circle will be removed and reconstructed … Continue reading A Labyrinth For Glasgow

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Touchstones for Today

Grahame Gardner

Touchstones for Today – Designing for Earth Harmony with Stone Arrangements by Alanna Moore The subtitle of this new book by Alanna Moore is ‘Designing for Earth Harmony with Stone Arrangements’, but it could equally well be ‘Everything You Need to Know About Stones’, such is the range of the subject matter. This is an updated and greatly expanded version of her 2005 book ‘The Magic of Menhirs & Circles of Stone’. The first part of the book looks at the traditional uses of stones and stone formations in cultures around the world, from the healing (and cursing) stones and … Continue reading Touchstones for Today

archaeoastronomy, astronomy, Dowsing, Leys, News, stone circles, Uncategorized1 Comment

Saving Sighthill Stones

Grahame Gardner

The Sighthill Stone Circle is a modern astronomically-aligned stone ring that was designed and built in 1979 under the direction of local astronomer and SF writer Duncan Lunan. It is situated in the centre of Glasgow right next to the M8 motorway, and is almost certainly the first astronomically-aligned circle built in Scotland for over 3000 years (I have blogged about it before here and here). When I first dowsed the circle many years ago, it looked pretty neglected and I was unable to dowse any earth energies of interest within it. All ancient stone rings (as well as many … Continue reading Saving Sighthill Stones

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Dowsing Belinus

Grahame Gardner

The Belinus Line is a long-distance alignment, similar to the Michael Line, running the length of the UK from the Isle of Wight up to Inverhope on the north coast of Scotland, passing through Winchester, Birmingham, Manchester, Carlisle, Dunfermline, Pitlochry and Lairg on the way. Like the Michael Line, it has twin male and female serpentine energy currents weaving around the straight line and connecting many ancient sites. Gary Biltcliffe has been researching this alignment for around 20 years now, and his book documenting his odyssey is almost completed. Have a look at his website for more information. Gary and … Continue reading Dowsing Belinus

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Machrie Moor landscape for Stellarium

Grahame Gardner

After visiting a client on Arran a couple of weeks ago, I took the opportunity for a quick visit to Machrie Moor, which is about the closest thing Scotland has to a megalithic theme park. There are at least five sites in the complex, all very close together but of very different designs, as though the builders were experimenting to find out what worked best. One of the sites in particular has some spectacularly tall megaliths of a wonderful red sandstone – you can see some of these in the distance if you look to the north-east in this Stellarium … Continue reading Machrie Moor landscape for Stellarium

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Callanish landscape for Stellarium

Grahame Gardner

Ever since I saw the major southern standstill of the moon at Callanish on the Western Isles in 2006 (see my article The Song of the Low Moon), I’ve been wanting to recreate it using  the open-source astronomy program Stellarium. It’s taken longer than anticipated, but that dream has now been fulfilled. Earlier this year, I was working on a show in Stornoway, and took the opportunity to drive out to the stones one morning when things were quiet. Nobody was about and I had the site to myself. I took GPS readings at the northern end of the avenue … Continue reading Callanish landscape for Stellarium

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Archaeoastronomy, Avebury and Crop Circles

Grahame Gardner

I’ve just returned from a weekend teaching course in Avebury, where I was tutoring 16 students through the BSD’s Earth Energies Level 4 course ‘Understanding Earth Energy Power Centres and Features of Special Geomantic Significance’ . It’s probably the most academic and ‘left-brain’ of all the Earth Energy courses as it covers topics including sacred geometry and celestial mechanics – not the easiest material to teach even when you are interested in the subject. However, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we had a good time exploring the Avebury complex of sites, visiting West Kennet long barrow, Swallowhead Spring and … Continue reading Archaeoastronomy, Avebury and Crop Circles

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Sighthill Solstice Sunset

Grahame Gardner

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: …and here’s the real thing, taken looking over the centre stone, which of course you don’t see in the Stellarium … Continue reading Sighthill Solstice Sunset

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Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle

Grahame Gardner

Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle – Herald Scotland | News | Home News. 2 Jun 2010 It was created in the late 1970s to mirror the rise and fall of the moon and sun across Glasgow on a site of ancient astronomical interest. Now efforts are being made to rejuvenate the Sighthill Stone Circle, created by amateur astronomer and science writer Duncan Lunan, who brought Britain’s first authentically alligned stone circle in more than 3000 years to Glasgow’s inner city. More than 30 years later, Lunan hopes to revive interest in the stone circle, which was … Continue reading Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle