Living With The Stones

Growing up as a boy, I would wander the high cliffs of North Devon in SW England, learning about the flora and the fauna of the area... it’s still a part of whom I am today. However, I was fascinated by the standing stones that dot the area, as well as the numerous ‘hill forts’ and ‘ring forts’ that would be found close to them. The footpaths that I would use, were not footpaths, but ‘ancient trackways’. These simple statements were profound to me. A distinction was being made to me, by parents and teachers, that these things were old and curious, but largely ignored. As I grew up and became more interested in the Ancients, I realised each of these things... the great banks and ditches of the forts, the stones, the paths and even the shape of the fields, around which I walked,... were creations of my ancestors and your ancestors.

However, as I studied the subject more, I realised that however important ( or not) that they are today, it does not reflect their importance or even reasons as to why they were originally built. The ‘trackways’ were simple connections between ancient communities. The forts were the communities, The stones were.....    ?

.... what were they, what did they represent...    ?

Different communities, spanning thousands of years, had defenses and well worn tracks connecting them. Fields were cultivated around the communal gathering places, field systems which are still clearly visible today. But what were the stones?

Well, archaeology has been able to tell us a little bit about them. We now know that they were erected, for whatever reasons, in the Neolithic ( new stone ) Period and in the Bronze Age. So we’re looking at between 7,000 and 3,500 years ago..... roughly. That’s a huge period of time, when you consider that only a 1000 years ago, the Normans invaded England ! So huge stone structures were erected and used for vast periods of time. They were important, but in what way? This means that many different communities, societies, ideals, and reasons were responsible for their construction. 

As a tour guide today, I very often give my ‘talk’ about the stones alignments to the stars.....    or rather I talk about their non alignment. There is not one single piece of scientific evidence to prove that they or even one of them was constructed to celebrate a celestial being or event. These were fantasies created around them when Druidism ( the Druids had little or nothing to do with them either, as they weren’t present in any society until about 3000 years ago) was made fashionable by the early Victorians in England. Then again in the 1920s the stones became tourist hot sports for the wealthy ( the literate few), and again, becoming popular in the 1960s for the same reason...tourism.... the myth was reinforced as it made a good story. 

So the question that I’ve been asking myself, since I was a boy, is ‘what we’re they really for’?

I, like everyone else, have my own ideas on this now. I believe that there is now enough evidence to point to them being the, waypoints/markers, watering holes, gathering places, the wayside inns, of the age. We know that almost all of them are close to those forts and tracks. This indicates that they were continually used by early man right up until the arrival of the Romans in Britain, and therefore very useful. Many of the stones are very close to natural springs and man made holes lined with clay, sufficient to hold water. Great for refreshing animals and humans alike. Others were chosen for their shape and point purposely in the direction of other standing stones, perhaps creating pathways through a more heavily wooded Britain. Archaeology tells us that within a few hundred years of them being constructed, humans were communing around them and digging ditches and villages and stockade banks and walls. Society was slowly developing around the stones...... the watering holes, the wayside inns ! 

In much the same way as pubs and hotels line our billboard cluttered road systems today, I believe that these atmospheric stone sites today served the same purpose.

Unfortunately we shall have to carry on pondering as we live with the stones !