Further
education is one aspect of life that has been disrupted by the pandemic.
Over
the last decade, I have attended night classes at Queens University Belfast to
learn about an array of interesting subjects.
These range from creative writing, jazz and classical music, philosophy,
languages, art, the origins of our place names and surnames, and Russian
culture.
The course menu offered by the university’s
School of Open Learning includes many other enticing topics, including wine
appreciation, which I have still to sample.
In March a 10-week series of lectures about
the archaeology of Ulster was abruptly ended after 8 classes because of
Covid-19.
This
was a fact-filled course articulated with such infectious enthusiasm by an
expert practitioner that the weekly classes regularly exceeded their 2-hour
time limit. The prospectus covered 9-10,000 years of human settlement in
Ireland beginning with the Mesolithic era.
Despite its inevitability, the sudden cancellation made the loss of the
final two classes disappointing.
Fortunately
I had submitted my course assignment early.
An edited copy follows below.
As
I wrote about stone circles, my subconscious was aware of the dire
events imagined by author Robert Harris in “The Second Sleep.” The setting is a
post-apocalyptic future that might happen as a result of circumstances that
include climate change, a pandemic with no vaccine, nuclear fall-out - with scientism and archaeology deemed heretical.
In a
novel way, the award-winning author was endorsing what we all know, namely that
archaeology matters.
STONE
CIRCLES
A highlight of life as a university student of town and
country planning in Belfast’s dark days of the early 1970’s was a field trip to
sunny Greece. Most of our time was spent
visiting classical sites.
In retrospect,
I have to acknowledge the creative brilliance of our lecturers to remove us -
aspirant professionals of the built environment - from the ugliness
of 1960’s and ‘70’s architecture by stimulating our imagination with the genius
of the ancients.
On the approach to Delphi, I asked my English classmate
what to expect since he’d visited before.
His cryptic reply - “it’s just a pile of old stones” - was the perfect
brief to underwhelm ahead of a life-enhancing experience.
For the first time in adulthood, I had a
sense of awe about a place and about the importance of archaeology. I could feel why and how the ancient Greeks
deemed it as the home of the Oracle, the centre of civilisation or omphalos,
this heap of stones.
Practicing in rural planning back in Tyrone,
archaeological sites were an occasional topic of interest. Informatives would attach to planning
consents on land adjacent to monuments, putting the onus on the applicant to
liaise with the Department’s experts on ancient sites.
In retrospect, we should have done more to protect
archaeological heritage, a thought reinforced by the example of our course’s
revelation about the significant middle Bronze Age site of Corrstown in
Portrush, excavated in 2002.[i]
The idea of modern development superimposed
over the wider remains of a 3000 year old site is impossible to reconcile with
civilised respect for pre-history.
Stone Circles in Munster and Ulster
Apparently there are 900 stone circles in Britain and
Ireland. They were constructed by our
Neolithic and Bronze Age predecessors.
What makes them interesting to unqualified observers like me is that
stone circles are among the most prominent, distinctive and mysterious
monuments in the archaeological landscape.
Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain is a world-famous stone
circle, achieving additional notoriety following an alleged poisonous visit by
two alleged Russians to the alleged Skripal home.
Stone rows and monoliths exist in Carnac, Brittany with 7
parallel lines extending to over one kilometre.
And Orkney is home to a UNESCO world heritage site which includes the
Ring of Brodgar.[ii]
This is where Billy Connolly trod a thin line between comic (or cosmic) mockery
and spiritual homage with a naked dance around the stone circle. That was a year or two after my fully clothed
visit en famille in 2008.
 |
| Figure 1 The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney August 2009 |
In Ireland the predecessor skills of megalithic
tomb-builders (circa 4000BC) changed in the Bronze Age (circa 2500-800 BC) to
constructing monuments like stone circles, stone rows and standing stones.[iii]
Seán O’Nualláin admits that archaeologists
are unsure about their purpose.
Because,
however, “many were found to be associated with burial it has been concluded
that they were ritual or ceremonial monuments associated with a cult of the
dead.”
Individual stones, he says, were set apart rather than
contiguous to form free-standing circles and rows (or alignments) or set singly
as monoliths; and the size/shape of stones along with their number had some
special significance – about which, as an academic without evidence, he doesn’t
speculate.
According to O’Sullivan and Downey,[iv] Ireland’s notable
concentrations of circles are located in south-Munster and mid-Ulster. Their research reveals that over 100 circles
are known in Ulster, that almost 150 are reported in the Sperrins.
They conclude with the tantalising remark
that “the total number is seemingly much higher.”
The Munster series occupy large areas of County Cork and
part of south-west Kerry. Principal characteristics are stone circles, stone
rows and boulder-burials. The circles vary in area from 8 to 55 feet in
diameter and in size from 5 to 17 stones.
The stones are arranged symmetrically with the entrance towards the
north-east.
O’Nualláin says that over
100 such circles are known, half of which are the 5-stone variety; and that a
fifth of the larger circles contain a monolith.
He adds that over 170 stone rows are known in Cork and
Kerry. Individual stones vary from 3 to
13 feet in height and are mostly graded with the tallest stone at one end; with
rows aligned along a north-east/south-west axis.
O’Nualláin concludes that this “indicates an
alignment of the monuments with the heavens in which the sun rises and
sets...both series tend to cluster indicating a winter rather than a summer
position for the sun.”
It may also be,
in his estimation, that many of the 600 south-Munster monoliths display a
similar plan orientation, in which case this would link them with the region’s
stone circles and rows.
The mid-Ulster circles and rows differ from the
south-Munster examples.
O’Nualláin
explains that Ulster’s are set in clusters which may also include cairns, cists
and monoliths.
Most Ulster rows, like
the accompanying circles, are composed of numerous small stones set close
together and seldom exceed 3 feet in height. The rows are mostly set
tangentially to the circles and can run to about 100 feet long. The circles are irregular in outline and
rarely exceed 49 feet diameter.
Beaghmore in Co Tyrone is Ulster’s stand-out site. The
up-to-date and official designation[v] using metric measurement puts
it thus:-
“There is a large impressive
series of Bronze Age ceremonial monuments excavated from the surrounding bog
between 1945 and 1949 and in 1965. The
main features are six stone circles occurring in pairs, with twelve cairns
which held cremation burials and 8 stone alignments running in parallel in a
NE-SW direction. The average height of
the stones in these circles is 0.3-0.6 metres.
A further single stone circle, the “Dragon’s Teeth,” is filled with
closely-set stones and contains the tallest stone on site at 1.2m. Running under these features are low banks of
small stones, probably derived from clearing fields for arable farming in
Neolithic times. The stone features
continue to the north under the bog and there are many other Neolithic and
Bronze Age monuments in this area. Finds
were sparse from the excavations but two flint hoards were found, one dated by
radiocarbon to the late Neolithic and the other to the early Bronze Age. Study of pollen from a nearby former lake
suggests Neolithic activity from 3500 BC, with the main period of the stone
monuments in the Bronze Age, 1500-800 BC...”
 |
| Figure 2 Beaghmore Stone Circles, County Tyrone (Source DfC) |
The monuments on this 5 acre ground were built above an
Early Neolithic site.
O’Nualláin says
that one cist contained a polished stone axe head and that two cremated burials
were found in a cairn.
Largely in accord
with the official description, he dates the Neolithic activity on Beaghmore as
beginning in the fourth millennium BC, adding that the main period of the rows,
circles, cairns and cists was the late second and early first millennia
BC.
Given the value of this type of archaeological heritage
both to our sense of civic pride and, not least to
our economy as a pandemic impacts, the take of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board[vi] is noteworthy.
Without citing sources, the body responsible
for attracting visitors surmises that “at some stage peat started to form over
the (Beaghmore Circles), and it may be that the cairns and rows were erected in
a futile propitiatory attempt to restore fertility to the soil by attracting
back the fading sun.”
The message is loud and clear. County Tyrone people have been engaged almost
in tandem with the ancient Greeks honing their skills to make Ulster a better
place since time immemorial,[vii] and doing so at Beaghmore for about 5,720
years.
Translating Ulster place names from Irish Gaelic to
English can provide further clues about archaeological characteristics and features.
The anglicised name Beaghmore derives from an
old Irish noun An Bheitheach Mhór. This translates into English as the large
place of birch. [viii] In modern Irish, an bheith still means the birch.
As a native tree (one of seven common species
listed[ix]), the clearing of fields
may have included removal of a large forest of birch originally to facilitate
arable Neolithic farming and the later building of these Bronze Age stone
monuments.
On which point, Halpin and Newman[x] say that “palynological
analysis has demonstrated tree clearance starting from around 3800 BC...and
some of the field boundaries pre-date the circles.
Consequently, it is suspected that the
circles themselves date from between 1500 and 800 BC. It is possible that the alignments are
directed towards the midsummer sunrise...”
Among other intriguing details, Halpin and Newman say
that pits inside Circle C contained round-bottomed carinated bowls referred to
as Lyles Hill ware; that a cist inside Circle E (Dragon’s Teeth, north end of
site) contained part of the trunk of an oak tree; Circle E is filled with over
880 smaller stones arranged in concentric circles and that a cairn inside the
circle contained two burials; and that a hearth near the cairn was dated to
2900-2500 BC.
 |
| Figure 3 Beaghmore Stone Circles layout (Source; Halpin & Newman) |
Future research
There is so much more to learn about our stone
circles. From the foregoing analysis,
the following suggestions arise.
·
O’Sullivan and Downey’s assertion that there
may be many more stone circles here than are currently known merits further
examination. Geographical connections
between stone circles, as well as their purpose, warrant more detailed
study.
·
Additional research, for example, might
illuminate O’Nualláin’s suggestion that “despite their differing
characteristics and considerable distance apart, the occurrence of circles,
rows, cairns, monoliths and small burial chambers in both the Ulster and
Munster groups suggests the presence of an underlying unity of tradition.”
·
Similarly, arising from Halpin and Newman’s
reference to the uncovering of nine multi-ringed circles (like Beaghmore’s
Dragon’s Teeth circle) at Copney Hill 7 miles east of Beaghmore, the question
of both alignments being directed to the midsummer sunrise could usefully be
elucidated; and
·
Arising from the course’s information about
early evidence of written Irish and Ogham (4th century AD) on
standing stones, any potential connection between the Aghascreba[xi] stone and the nearby
Beaghmore circles could be revelatory.
Resources for research
All technologies old and new have their uses.
Antony Burl’s comprehensive guide, for example, examines
390 circles across Great Britain, Brittany and Ireland.[xii]
He includes advice on techniques and
equipment needed to inspect and record these monuments.
Apart from mundane kit like probes, compass,
flexi-tape and camera and the application of simple maths and equations, he
combines calculations of specific gravity and density relative to water to
calculate the number of labourers required to shift a monolith. Good point.
Almost as an incidental, he reckons that all stones in a
circle are local, seldom coming from more than a mile or two away.
The benefits of modern techniques have been illustrated
with the recent discovery of new monuments in the vicinity of Brú na Bóinne, Co
Meath. It includes the Neolithic site of
Newgrange.
The Boyne to Brodgar project,[xiii] funded by the German
Government, examines connections between Neolithic monuments in the Boyne
Valley and the Orkney Islands.
 |
| Figure 4 Newgrange County Meath |
University College Dublin’s head of archaeology, Dr Steve
Davis, reports that 40 new structures have been discovered “using 21st
century archaeological technologies including satellite-based remote sensing,
drones, airborne laser scanning and geophysics.”
In March this year (just before the pandemic lockdown), news from a UCD sonar
study describes further finds[xiv] including an alignment
of stones as part of a weir in the River Boyne itself.
The case for funding a Boyne to Brodgar type of project
in Ulster is compelling not least because of the quality of our archive of
scheduled monuments, “the best in Europe.”
Just think what could be discovered with the application of new
technologies to ancient sites like Beaghmore.
The oracle has spoken.
©Michael McSorley 2020
Postscript:-
This Covid-19 series now comprises of 6 articles to
date:-
Part 1 (24 March 2020) A Test for Elected Leaders[xv]
Part 2 (11 April 2020) Coping with Contagion, a Survival
Strategy.[xvi]
Part 3 (30 April 2020) The New Vocabulary[xvii]
Part 4 (21 May 2020) Following the Science[xviii]
Part 5 (11 June 2020) Beautiful books[xix]
Part 6 (26 June 2020) Stone Circles
[i] V Ginn
and S Rathbone (eds) “Corrstown: A Coastal Community. Excavations of a Bronze
Age Village in Northern Ireland.
[ii] https://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Orkney-Islands/blog-208661.html
[iii]
Seán O’Nualláin “Stone Circles, stone rows, boulder-burials and standing
stones” Irish Archaeology Illustrated ed. Michael Ryan
[iv] M
O’Sullivan and L Downey Archaeology Ireland Vol 25 No 1 Spring 2011 “Know your
Monuments: Stone Circles”
[v]Department
for Communities Historic Environment Division “Historic Monuments of Northern
Ireland, Scheduled Historic Monuments” May 2019.
The DfC report
also contains a Related Documents section with details, plans &
photographs. Monitoring was carried out at the site prior to the installation
of a disabled access kissing gate, in the NW corner of the car park. Nothing of
archaeological interest, it adds, was noted.
The DfC report references Beaghmore’s monuments into five
under these four headings (Monument
type, Grid reference, Council District, Sm number): Cairn H6872 8470 Mid Ulster
20:2; Cairn H6856 8472 Mid Ulster 20:3;
Stone
circles alignments and cairns Area of H684 842 Mid Ulster 20:4; Round cairn
with standing stones: Bradley’s cairn H6830 8401 Mid Ulster 20:13; Cairn and
alignment H6863 8431 Mid Ulster 20:23
[vi] https://discovernorthernireland.com/Beaghmore-Stone-Circles-Cookstown-P2949/
[vii]
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/time-immemorial
[viii]
Kay Muhr, Northern Ireland Place-Name Project December 2003
[ix] https://www.treecouncil.ie/nativeirishtrees
[x]
Andy Halpin and Conor Newman “Ireland An Oxford Archaeological Guide OUP 2006
[xi] Achadh
scríobach means scraping or scratchy field.
Ogham alphabet spelled tree words – the birch?
[xii]
Aubrey Burl “A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain Ireland and Brittany” Yale UP 1995
[xiii]
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/40-new-ancient-irish-monuments-newgrange?fbclid=IwAR2mWwP0UKLjvmBd6aF8YaSqw_Dqy2hceYEG2HUEftDf-GO6Q-Lc-roQPUA
[xiv]
Irish Times 1 March 2020 Paul Murphy “Underwater study reveals possible quay at
Brú na Bóinne” https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/underwater-study-reveals-possible-quay-at-br%C3%BA-na-b%C3%B3inne-1.4189765?fbclid=IwAR1OV9brldyJLmLTVNY2wQNbQ2CQTW9pvGhQhMh2-uX7kkyXd2TqBpViccI
[xv] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-test-for-elected-leaders.html
[xvi] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/04/coping-with-contagion-survival-strategy.html
[xvii]
https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-new-vocabulary.html
[xviii]
https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/05/following-science.html
[xix] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/06/beautiful-books.html
