A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany

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 and knowledgeable guidebook is the first to deal comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany.

Written by Aubrey Burl, the acknowledged authority on these monuments, 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.

Filled with fascinating information, useful maps, and seventy arresting photographs, this book is an invaluable resource for those interested in the mysteries of the ancient sanctuaries known as stone circles.

This practical and knowledgeable guidebook deals comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany. This new edition includes a section on "Druidical" circles, romantic creations of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

"This book is not only an elegant and practical guide, it is also the best single-volume study of this extraordinary phenomenon, embracing 500 monuments from Shetland to Brittany. . . . Confident, erudite, pleasurable, this volume can be recommended as travel guide, archaeology, literature, and sheer good company."—Ian Sheperd, British Archaeology

"This is a wonderful book and is a must for anyone remotely interested in things megalithic."—Paul Walsh, Archaeology Ireland

This practical and knowledgeable guidebook deals comprehensively with the stone circles of Britain and Ireland and with the cromlechs and megalithic "horseshoes" of Brittany. This new edition includes a section on "Druidical" circles, romantic creations of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

"This book is not only an elegant and practical guide, it is also the best single-volume study of this extraordinary phenomenon, embracing 500 monuments from Shetland to Brittany. . . . Confident, erudite, pleasurable, this volume can be recommended as travel guide, archaeology, literature, and sheer good company."—Ian Sheperd, British Archaeology

"This is a wonderful book and is a must for anyone remotely interested in things megalithic."—Paul Walsh, Archaeology Ireland

Aubrey Burl was until his retirement principal lecturer in archaeology at Hull College of Higher Education. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Stone Circles of the British Isles, Prehistoric Avebury, and From Carnac to Callanish, all published by Yale University Press.