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Megalithic and Prehistoric Sites

Prehistoric-ish, seeing as not that much is known about those people known as Picts... anyway, we were at the Abernethy round tower today. It has a stone with Pictish symbols at the bottom of the tower.

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Here's the round tower (10th/11th century) for info. The Pictish stone can be seen bottom right of the tower.
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Prehistoric-ish, seeing as not that much is known about those people known as Picts... anyway, we were at the Abernethy round tower today. It has a stone with Pictish symbols at the bottom of the tower.

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Here's the round tower (10th/11th century) for info. The Pictish stone can be seen bottom right of the tower.
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new fangled carbunkle
;)
 
It is. There are another 9 'Callanishes' in the vicinity, tho only three or four are really worth visiting, iirr. The whole environs is fucking lovely tho.
Yeah I like the look of some of the smaller ones, too. The one by the bridge looks fab.

We've got a couple of weeks up there on Lewis and Harris staying in 4 different places. If the weather allows we might even get out to St Kilda on a day trip. I'm a wee bit like a kid on Xmas eve right now.
 
I've been in 2016. It is amazing. The photographer above in yours managed to get an angle that didn't include the cafe etc. Unlike mine :D

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It's a fantastic site isn't it? I got some good shots but when you've got a phone with practically unlimited memory and a perfectly lit dusk that lasts about three hours this time of year ... you really should get one or two.

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I got a guided tour round Midhowe in Rousay today with a pair of archaeologists who've been working in the Northern Isles for decades. (I'm volunteering at another site nearby ). Some of the people they worked with on a previous dig were stonemasons and/or did dry stone walling (iirc) and it was fascinating hearing about the discussions they'd had with them about the building techniques that were used for the different stages of the broch.

They pointed out stuff like there was a whole inner wall built inside the broch at a later date so supports for an upper floor could be added, and you can still the corbelling in some places where the walls would've sloped inwards enough to support some huge flat slabs over the top of the structure.

The chambered cairn there is amazing too. In a way the shed built around it for protection in the 1930s - now a listed building itself - almost makes it better as you can really appreciate the scale of it from the walkway above.

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In the 1950s, a major project was underway to restore some fallen stones at Stonehenge. This included an entire trilithon that had fallen in 1797. Even with the technology of the day, it proved to be a huge challenge and one of the largest cranes in the country had to be brought in for the job.

The specialist crane, known as a Curran crane, was built for lifting an aircraft up to 60 tons and there happened to be one nearby at Boscombe Down. The heaviest of the stones combined with its cradle weighed around 60 tons, so it was right on the edge of its maximum capability.

Crane operator David Healy remembers when he got the call to help with the restoration work at Stonehenge:

‘At RAF Boscombe Down we were preparing numerous aircraft for the Cold War … I was asked to help the crane operators at Stonehenge … I knew about cranes from the aircraft … We got into the main circle … one of the main sarsen stones had fallen down … we got it up into position and the other workers packed stones round the bottom … we got one of the lintel stones up and put up a blue stone on the way out.’
 
You did one of the special early morning 'get up close to the stones' things A380? Looks fab.

A friend keeps recommending this saying how it's really worth it, but I was lucky enough to get up close to the Stones in '85, in rather different weather!

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We did and it really was. The weather was perfect , but then the snow looks great!

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