The Hele and Station Stones

From the centre of Stonehenge the Mid Summer Solstice sun rises over the Heel Stone. Unlike the majority of earlier megalithic stone circles, oriented on natural features such as prominent hills, all Stonehenge sighting alignments are internal to the structure. Lacking a suitable mountain the builders had to provide an outlier to mark the rising of the sun at midsummer as seen from the centre of the circle.

The Heel Stone stands to the northeast of the Stonehenge circles beside the Avenue, 256 feet from the centre of Stonehenge.

Unlike the stones of the main monument the Heel Stone is unworked, the top of the stone is naturally pointed, possible indicating an earlier date. The Heel Stone measures around 20 feet long, of which 4 feet are buried. It is 8 feet wide, 7 feet thick and weighs around 35 tons. Excavators discovered a rhyolite chip, similar to the Bluestones, at the bottom of the ditch surrounding the Hele stone.

The name may be derived from the Greek word for the sun - 'Helios' or it may be derived from the old British word 'heol - track', because it stands beside the Avenue.

The Heel Stone belongs to the same phase of construction as the four Station Stones.

The Four Stations or Station Stones stand inside the bank more or less on the Aubrey Hole circle. Two, diagonally opposite, have mounds and ditches, the other two do not. These mounds/ditches overlay both Aubrey Holes and the bank.

The Station Stones form a rectangle whose diagonals intersect at 45°, very close to the centre of Stonehenge  The sides and diagonals of this rectangle possess what Gerald Hawkins called 'astronomic significance.' One pair of sides mark the Summer Solstice Sunrise/ Winter Solstice Sunset, the other pair indicate the most northerly/southerly moonrise/moonset.

Only at, or very close to, the latitude of Stonehenge ( 51' 10" ) do these alignments intersect at an angle of 90°.

'The implications of this are that the builders of Stonehenge had a knowledge of the global nature of the Earth' - Devereux

Next - The Bluestones