Product Description

From Stonehenge to Callanish, from Newgrange to Er-Lannic, great prehistoric stone circles have drawn thousands of admiring visitors to their sites every year. This practical guidebook deals comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany. The book describes over 400 sites and discusses the archaeology and architectural features of each ring. Burl tells the reader how to find a specific site and what to look for, considers problems of dating the remains, points out interrelationships between widely separated sites, explains place-names, and provides stories about legends, witchcraft, and funerals associated with the rings. He also gives suggestions for practical work on site, telling how to deduce the source of the stones, estimate their weight, calculate the number of people involved in the construction of a ring, and investigate the possibility of alignments to the sun and moon. Featuring information, useful maps, and 70 photographs, this is a resource for those interested in the mysteries of the ancient sanctuaries known as stone circles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #556749 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

Tom Condit, Archaeology Ireland, Winter 2005
'[Aubrey Burl] has provided restrained, tempered yet incisive and scientific insights into prehistory's most enigmatic monumnet types.'

Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Reference to Stone Circles - Masterful.
Aubrey Burl has the credentials and credibility to author this, the best reference to the stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, with gusto. It is a powerful masterpiece which is long overdue in the world of prehistoric antiquarianism. It surpasses all contemporaries in the field with no difficulty. While many others, Julian Cope's tome included, are wonderful texts in themselves, none come close to the mastery of the subject area that Burl exhibits here.

The information shared with the reader is truly remarkable. Everything you will ever need to know about these stones is here, from the swirling myths and legends which surround such phenomena to historical, geographical, geological, astronomical and archaeological facts. The only thing left is to actually follow the maps and go and see them for yourself. It is one of the cheapest, most leisurely and yet interesting activities any one could ever do. The hefty price of this book is well justified.

It is the big brother of "A guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany", which is the smaller version or gazetteer to be carried around while tramping over the hills and moors searching for these elusive shrines. This book is a tad too big for space in the rambling haversack.

Every circle doesn't make it. "Bedd Gurfal" here in North Wales doesn't make an appearance, neither do a few other smaller rings, but all of the larger rings are not only mentioned, but are positively dissected with words, diagrams, pictures and academic hypotheses.

If you ever want to purchase an all knowing, all telling book on this subject, you need not look any further... Expensive, but truly magnificent.

great work made better
Aubrey Burl's previous works were showing a wee bit of dating. As carbon dating become more accurate, you are seeing these ancient rings grow older in age instead of younger as they anticipated. While Burl's previous works were amazing, this long awaited "update" of this information, as well as addition information on more recent excavations make this is must. Yes, it's expensive. But it's worth every penny. There are new insight in the the purpose of the rings of stone, a new interpretation of Calanais (sorry, as a Scot I refuse to call it Callanish!) and Stonehenge

The beautiful book is loaded with hundreds of photos, explores the ancestry, methods of construction and why they were abandoned after thousands of years of use.

Marvelous work made even better by bringing the information up to date.

Detailed but very little on Brittany. Misleading title.
I bought this book because I have found very little in English about the stones of Brittany. I was disappointed with that aspect of the book as there are only 11 pages on this area in a book of over 260. I do not think that the material warrants the inclusion of 'Brittany' as equal billing in the title and the title is therefore quite misleading. But the material on the sites on britain and Ireland is detailed, including map references, and very well presented. The book is small enough to go into a pocket and has hard-wearing covers. So, with the above qualification, I would rate it as very good.