Previous

The Inner Monument

The central part of the monument consists of two different stone types, arranged concentrically; Sarsens ( a hard sandstone ) and Bluestones ( rhyolite or spotted dolomite ). A Sarsen circle surrounds a Bluestone circle and a Sarsen horseshoe ( the Trilithons ) surrounds a Bluestone horseshoe.

The Sarsen stones are 'local' to the area. These hard sandstone stones were transported from the Marlborough Downs; about twenty miles to the north-east of Salisbury Plain. They are the same type as used in the Avebury monument. The Sarsen stones have been shaped with great skill; not only are there domes on the uprights and indentations on the lintels for fitting and binding the structure, but the uprights are slightly tapered so that they look straight, and the lintels are curved to the shape of the circle. No mean feat if you consider it was done using stone tools. Hammer-stones weighing up to 60 pounds have been found.

The dome for interlocking with the lintel can be clearly seen in this photo taken as one of the Trilithons was re-erected at the beginning of the 20th century.

The bluestones are not local to the area of Stonehenge. Geological analysis in relatively recent times has shown that the bluestones at Stonehenge came from somewhere in the Preseli mountains in Pembrokeshire, Southwest Wales. Originally there may have  as many as eighty Bluestones, weighing up to five tons each. It's difficult to be certain, some are missing, others are broken and the pattern of holes is confusing. Stonehenge is not the first site where the bluestones stood as a circle. The stones show evidence of having been erected somewhere else previously.

The frequently maligned early historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his  'History of the kings of Britain' written around 1139AD, wrote:-

Before their erection at Stonehenge these stones comprised a sacred circle, a sacred circle transported to Stonehenge for it's religious significance; in the words of Professor Rhys ' the stones were regarded as divine or as seats of divine power'. 

download the History of the kings of Britain in .pdf format

However  The Preseli mountains lie in that part of westernmost Britain in an area settled by the Irish and sometimes referred to as Ireland in Geoffrey's time (More on this here)

So Geoffrey was not wrong about where the stones came from;

but what about the rest? Stonehenge had already stood for millennia by the time of Ambrosius. (More on this here)

 Did Geoffrey attribute the movement of the stones across great distances to Merlin's magic because he truly believed that or was he just saying he didn't really know how they'd been moved.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke

The use of 'It must have been magic' can be as much an expression of ignorance as it is of superstition. It's a term still used to refer to something not understood, inexplicable.

The extent of our knowledge on the subject is well summed up by Julian Richards in his book  'Stonehenge.' "Human transport, despite the distances and effort required, still seems a more reasonable concept."

Several hundred years later, despite all the advances in science, we still don't know how the stones were transported.

"The great dolmens of Stonehenge, all of local stone, look as though they were erected to give importance to the smaller stones, which were placed in position shortly after they themselves were. It has been suggested that the smaller ones which are known to have been transported all the way from the Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire, were originally disposed in another order there and rearranged by the people who erected the larger ones." - Robert Graves; The White Goddess, p282.

Until the advent of the railways transport by water was the only way to effectively move large heavy objects over long distances.

(read more on water vs. land transportation)

It's likely that much of the transportation of the bluestones from the Preseli Mtns. to Stonehenge was by water. First by river, then along/across the Bristol Channel/Severn Estuary, then lastly by river(s) to Stonehenge; and while we can't be certain which rivers were used we can be certain that in their passage across the Bristol Channel/Severn Estuary the bluestones would have been carried past Lundy Island. 

Next .... The Hele and Station Stones