Qualla: Altar Stone (Stonehenge)

Altar Stone (Stonehenge): Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In 2024 geologists announced that one of the central stones at Stonehenge had travelled further than anyone imagined. The Altar Stone, a six-ton recumbent slab pinned at the centre of the circle by a fallen sarsen, was always known to be an outlier. It was not local. It was not Welsh, like the famous bluestones. Microscopic dating of its mineral grains pointed instead to north-east Scotland, more than 500 miles from Salisbury Plain. Whoever brought it here in around 2600 BCE crossed half the island.

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Altar Stone (Stonehenge): Stone 80

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In archaeological notation it is simply Stone 80. It lies near the geometric centre of Stonehenge, oriented along the monument's main axis, and weighs about six tons. If it ever stood upright, it would have reached nearly two metres tall. Some specialists believe it was always re...

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Altar Stone (Stonehenge): Crushed by a giant

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Stone 55, one of the great sarsen megaliths from the inner trilithon horseshoe, fell across the Altar Stone at some point in antiquity. It lies perpendicular across Stone 80 now, pinning it down. The collapse may explain why no one has properly excavated the Altar Stone since the...

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Altar Stone (Stonehenge): The Welsh theory, undone

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. For decades the standard story said the Altar Stone was Old Red Sandstone, probably from the Senni Beds of south Wales, transported the same general route as the bluestones from the Preseli Hills. Its purplish-green micaceous sandstone fit broadly with the Welsh geology. Then in ...

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Altar Stone (Stonehenge): A 500-mile question

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. How a six-ton slab travelled from north-east Scotland to Wiltshire in the Neolithic remains an open question. Overland would have crossed mountain ranges and dense forest. By sea, around the entire British coast, would have demanded a vessel and a crew capable of working open Atl...

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