Stonehenge News and Information

The Craig Rhos-y-felin outcrop, with excavation in 2015 at left; rhyolite chips found near Stonehenge precisely match part of this outcrop, now confirmed by uranium-lead dating (photo M Pitts)

A new study of Stonehenge bluestone is out. It’s short and densely written, and not dramatic. But it confirms the direction of current work which suggests that many of the Welsh bluestones came from north of the Preseli hills, rather than the top or to the south as traditionally believed (HH Thomas identified Carn Alw as a source for these particular stones, see map). The significance of this, as argued earlier by Richard Bevins and Rob Ixer, is that while Carn Alw might allow for ice transport of stones at least part of the way to Wiltshire, the nearer the sources move downslope towards the coast, the less supportable that becomes. And Mike Parker Pearson may have another quarry to look for.

Bevins…