The Ancient Mysteries of Stone Circles

Speaker A: Hi, everyone. When the Romans first sighted Britain, they reported that it was shrouded in fog and mist. A damp, rainy, sinister island. An island of ghosts. For centuries, world famous monuments like Stonehenge have been revered as a place of immense spiritual significance. In today's episode, we're going to be exploring similar locations to this topic and some of the stories and paranormal activity associated with these impressive structures. Massive and mysterious, Stonehenge was already ancient before the Romans arrived, and the mystery surrounding this site is still just as profound as it was centuries ago. Unexplained phenomena have been recorded across the whole site, with one dating back to August 1971, a time when the stones were fully open to the public. A group decided to camp out in the center of the Stone circle, pitching tents and laying campfires. At around 02:00, a.m., a violent thunderstorm broke overhead. At the height of this thunderstorm, two witnesses, a farmer and a policeman, were shaken to see eerie blue lights illuminating the stones so brightly that they had to avert their eyes. Hearing screams from the campers, they rushed to the monument, expecting to find people injured, having been struck by lightning, for example. When they arrived, the campsite was deserted, the remains of a fire left to ash, and all that else remained was smoldering tent pegs. The group, according to the eyewitnesses, had simply vanished into thin air. Many other strange stories surround this strange landscape. Staff living and working at King's Barrow Ridge would report strange blue flashes arcing across the barrows, accompanied by loss of electrical current. One intriguing tale dates from the 1950s, when a local man walking along the barrows in the woods near the King's Barrow Ridge became lost and the night starting drawing in, he climbed to the top of one of the barrows so as to get his bearings. From a distance, he spotted lights and assumed they were from a house or road or some other similar landmark. Upon climbing down the barrow, what he'd assumed were electrical lights began coming towards him and were, in fact, lit torches. This local man would hide and later report this procession of light were being carried by what he thought was modern day druids. He described them as appearing in wooden hoods of some sort and walking noiselessly. As the procession drew closer to the woods, the man could only watch as, one by one, the torches would go out and the figures in this silent procession would disappear. Investigations have shown that the edge of the woods around the King's Barrow is part of the avenue, the processional way to Stonehenge. It is likely that people of the Bronze Age saw the much earlier edifice of Stonehenge as a place of divine power and sanctity, and so chose this site as a burial site for successive generations of kings. So perhaps the lost walker had inadvertently followed a funeral procession from thousands of years ago in Avery, Wiltshire, one of the most important megalithic monuments in Europe along with its archaic mystifying and complex banks and ditches wrap around the village. I would spend my teenage years enjoying dousing here with my friend along with some rather unsuccessful camping attempts. The Sarson stone circle here have been in place for up to 5000 years and the surviving avenue of stones strike awe into any visitor. Here once stood over 500 stones believed to be a focus for religious worship for thousands of years. Sadly, some of the stones were buried in the Middle Ages, perhaps because of their pagan associations, whilst others were broken up and used as building materials for later centuries. It's a shame that more records of where this stone was used does not exist as anyone interested in the stone tape theory or place memories might be able to carry out some interesting paranormal investigative research as to whether activity associated with the Avery site attached to the stone and therefore new locations that they were used in. There is a belief that buildings made from the former standing stones are subject to a poltergeist like manifestation known as the haunt. We know that some of these materials were used to help cobble the streets of Avery and construct some of the houses still there to this day. Ghost stories and poltergeist activity surround some of those structures. In fact, growing up I knew someone who lived there and often experienced things being moved in their kitchen. Certainly there are many stories of accidents or near accidents happening to the men tasked with breaking up these stones in the 18th and 19th century, leading to stories of vengeful stone spirits or guardians becoming common. In 1930, most of the stones were re erected by the archaeologist Alexander Keeler. Under one of these stones he would find a gruesome discovery. He and his team discovered skeleton of man coins which dated back to the 1320s and tools found with him suggested he'd been helping to dig the burial pit for the stone when it toppled and fatally injured him. Scissors and a lancet, something used for bloodletting and minor surgeries were also discovered. The archaeologists concurred that these were the tools of a medieval barber surgeon. The remains of the unfortunate barber and his coins and tools are now in London and the righted stone is now known as the barberstone. Speak to almost any local living near the stones and they will talk of seeing spectral figures and moving lights around the stones at night. Phantom singing, often carried on the wind is often reported as having been heard. One strange story coming from Avery tells of a woman who claimed to see the site as it had been decades before. 1 October evening during World War I, erect, his daughter and stalwart of the land army named Edith drove into Avery for the first time having been charmed by the misty avenue of looming megaliths along her route from the west. On arriving, she noticed a crowd of villagers attending a fair. Nine years would pass before she would discover that the massive avenue she had seen had disappeared by 1800 and that no fair had been held in the village since 1851. Particular stone at Avery is said to hold unusual powers given to it by the devil himself. Aptly named the Devil's Chair, the stone is said to emit a thick plume of black smoke, which denotes the devil's impending presence. However, if you run around the stone 100 times, anticlockwise he can be conjured. So legend goes. As a result of the experiences of locals and stories passed down through the decades, it's no surprise that the site is treated with cautious respect. South of the old Penrith road, a few miles east of Keswick lies the castle rig stone circle in the Lake district. This freestanding circle of megalithic stones is approximately 30 meters in diameter, with a further ten stones forming an interior rectangular setting adjoining the circle. Castlerig Stone Circle, also known as Druid Circle and Keswick Carls is one of the most impressive stone circles in Cumbria. Like Avery, it too is about 5000 years old. As you stand inside the circle, which is high up on a windswept plateau, you are surrounded by a panorama of mountains. Some quarters believe that the Stone Circle was part of a memorial assembly place where kings came to mourn their dead. There they would perform funeral rites to speed the passing of the departed soul. Local folklore once held that Castle Rigstone Circle consisted of men turned to stone. Stone axe and a club like implement were found here before 1855. Earth lights as a phenomena reported all over the world, including Avery and Castle Rigstone Circle. This rare anomalous light phenomenon is theorized to be produced by tectonic strain in minor fault lines. They appear in many colors, shapes and sizes, with most sightings occurring at night. They've been known as spook lights or ghost lights since at least the 1950s. Some locations are hotspots for this type of activity, like hestalon in Norway and the English pennines. This type of local activity has become ingrained in local folklore, culture and supernatural stories. In Ireland, for example, the lights are fairies. In Asia, they are gods and in America, they are the ghosts of Native Americans. This earth lights phenomena has been reported on a number of occasions in the center of the Castle Rigstone Circle in 1919. One observer described this in the following way we saw a number of lights in the directions of the Druidical Circle. Whilst we watched, one of the lights came straight to the spot we were standing, at first very faint. As it was approaching, the light increased in intensity. When it came close, it slowed down, stopped, quivered and slowly went away. There are many further examples of similar structures across England with their own haunting stories and phenomena attached to them. Just a few miles from my home are the rollright Stones, for example, striking limestone monuments dating back to as early as 4000 BC. The Rollright stones consist of three major formations constructed at different times throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The Whispering Knights, Dolman, Or Tombs, the King's Men's, Stone Circle, and the Kingstone. Local law has it that the stones were once a king in his knight, transformed to limestone by a witch. I'd urge you to see if you have similar structures near you to take a visit. Explore some of their stories and phenomena. If anything has been reported in those locations. Positively looming with significance. The mysteriously arranged structures of Stonehenge, Avery and Castlerig are some of the world's greatest wonders. But these strange stone structures are not limited to England alone. They can be found throughout the world in many shapes and sizes. Their purposes may be shrouded in mystery, but their remains add character and ancient beauty to landscapes across the globe, from the Cold Mountains of Russia to the balmy Mediterranean. In the Irish countryside, glyphs were formed into a circle that aligns with the sunset on the winter solstice, for example, prehistoric huts, nearby Bronze Age pottery and human remains suggest the monument was used from as early as 1100 BCE. In Brittany, France. More than 3000 stone, known as the Carnac Stones, have stood in careful rows since as early as 4500 BCE. Local legend says the stones were once soldiers, frozen in place for all eternity. Other theories point to the sky. The region contains not just megaliths, but dolmans as well stone structures that served as tombs on the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea. Megalithic monuments called towers, Catalan for tables, attract visitors far and wide. Archaeologists aren't sure what purpose the towers served, though it's possible they held some religious or astronomical significance. Another theory suggests they were centers of healing for the people who built them. Perhaps the most visually similar to Stonehenge, the towers were constructed between 1003 thousand BC. There is little doubt that these ancient stone structures still possess the ability to inspire feelings of wonder and dread in all but the most cursory visitor. Indeed, no one who gazes upon them for the first time or arrives to find them rising ghostlike from a swirling mist on a crisp winter's morning could fail to be moved by their magic. Thank you for listening. See you next time.

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