# Good ol' Stonehenge, is there any other like it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188 "2006-11-05T16:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/21 "2006-11-05T21:14:44Z")
Yeah. my daughter is going to London at New Years with her 7th grade class. ---
**Author:** ![Emilio\_Lizardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/22 "2006-11-05T21:24:32Z")
Lets not forget [carhenge](http://lizzy.smugmug.com/gallery/1631340/1/79574709) and [fridgehenge](http://werklife.com/fridgehenge/02.html). ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/23 "2006-11-05T21:29:00Z")
[QUOTE=Edward The Head] If you’re talking about lineing up with the sun there are a few different places there as well. **At Newgrange the sun comes up on the winter soltice. At Carrowkeel, I think, the sun sets on the summer soltice.** I’ve been there for it and it’s quite amazing. [/QUOTE] Hey, that’s cool! The sun rises and sets on every solstice where I live too! 😛 Bolding mine ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/24 "2006-11-05T21:41:44Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp] Since Avebury has already been mentioned, I’ll just add a link to a picture of the village within a ring of stone: [http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/images/361.jpg](http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/images/361.jpg) [/QUOTE] Hey, that’s where they made the show [Children of the Stones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Stones) which creeped me out when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/25 "2006-11-05T22:19:54Z")
My mate Trefor and I went to Callanish in April 1986 (shortly after the Chernobyl disaster). The only reason we went was because Trefor remembered seeing the stones on an episode of “Go With Noakes” a few years earlier. The stones are just there in a field - no entrance fee, no signs saying “keep off” or anything like that so you can walk among them, touch them, climb onto them even, if you want to (we didn’t). And there wasn’t another soul to be seen for miles. I have to admit it was a fairly spiritual experience. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/26 "2006-11-05T23:33:04Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Not the biggest or best preserved but the circles at Castlerigg in Cumbria are something to be seen. To sit on those “rocks” knowing that 1000s of years ago some guy did the exact same thing is awesome. [/QUOTE] Did you try to count them? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/27 "2006-11-05T23:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Hey, that’s where they made the show [Children of the Stones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Stones) which creeped me out when I was a kid. [/QUOTE] You saw that too??!? Scared the absolute shit out of me, that did. And thus gave me the creeps when I first went to Avebury too. But glad to hear I’m not alone in having seen it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/28 "2006-11-06T01:18:25Z")
Stonehenge! One of the greatest henges in the world. No one has built a henge like that since then. No one knows what the fuck a henge is. But we’ve got one. [/Eddie Izzard] I actually went to Avebury and not Stonehenge when I visited Salisbury a few years ago. You can’t even get close to Stongehenge anymore, anyway. Avebury was charming and peaceful and you can hug the stones all you want. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/29 "2006-11-06T01:34:15Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] one charmer got out of the bus, looked at the stone circle and said the immortal words “It’s just a bunch of rocks.” [/QUOTE] On the Great Family Vacation, at age nine, upon seeing the Grand Canyon, it is said that I remarked, “It’s just a big ole hole in the ground.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/30 "2006-11-06T01:39:09Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] You can’t even get close to Stongehenge anymore, [/QUOTE] And that makes me long for the extermination of the hooligans who are responsible. We and another couple drove down to Stonehenge in 1960. We stopped in Salisbury and bought the makings of a picnic and ate it on one of the stones inside the circle. There wasn’t even anyone around except an exceptionally overweight and half asleep British Army Sergeant in a little building. When you get right down to the meat of the matter, people are no damned good. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/31 "2006-11-06T04:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] \*I’d recommend Orkney anyway, it’s a stunning place - and oddly the most astonishing thing on the Islands is about 60 years old… [/QUOTE] I can only assume that you mean the [Italian Chapel](http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/italianchapel/) on Lamb Holm, built by Italian POWs during WWII. Truly an inspirational place – they took a basic [Nissen Hut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_hut) _(the US derivative is the Quonset Hut)_, and made an impressive house of worship / work of art. However, my personal Orkney “astonishing” vote would still go to [Skara Brae](http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/westmainland/skarabrae/index.html). _[BTW, the [Undiscovered Scotland](http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/index.html) website has a plethora of great destinations that Dopers – and others – would enjoy.]_ ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/32 "2006-11-06T07:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan] Did you try to count them? [/QUOTE] Well y’know that never occurred to me, can’t think why. Oh wait! perhaps it was 'cos I was in awe of the place. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/33 "2006-11-06T12:26:45Z")
[QUOTE=Antonius Block] I can only assume that you mean the [Italian Chapel](http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/italianchapel/) on Lamb Holm. [/QUOTE] It was maybe because I knew about Skara Brae, Maes Howe et al but I’d never even heard of the Italian Chapel until I visited it. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/34 "2006-11-06T17:49:31Z")
You don’t need to make a henge out of stone, [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/woodhenge.htm](http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/woodhenge.htm) One of my favourites is the The Hurlers in Cornwall, I was there when we had a solar eclipse a few years back, this was a great place to be at the time. Its not widely known nationally but its a good place to go. [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/Cornwall/the\_hurlers.htm](http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/Cornwall/the_hurlers.htm) Here is a henge that is out of the ordinary > **[Seahenge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahenge)** > > Seahenge, also known as Holme I, was a prehistoric monument located in the village of Holme-next-the-Sea, near Old Hunstanton in the English county of Norfolk. A timber circle with an upturned tree root in the centre, Seahenge, along with the nearby timber circle Holme II, was built in the spring-summer of 2049 BCE, during the early Bronze Age in Britain. Contemporary theory is that they were used for ritual purposes; in particular Holme II has been interpreted as a mortuary monument that may ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/35 "2006-11-06T22:47:09Z")
Obligitory link to [Carhenge](http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/roadsideAttractions/carhenge.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/36 "2006-11-06T22:50:35Z")
[QUOTE=Edward The Head] If you’re talking about lineing up with the sun there are a few different places there as well. At Newgrange the sun comes up on the winter soltice. At Carrowkeel, I think, the sun sets on the summer soltice. I’ve been there for it and it’s quite amazing. [/QUOTE] I might be misremembering something off BBC2, but if there’s an alignment with the summer solstice sunrise, the winter solstice sunset is also aligned in the other direction. And vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/37 "2006-11-06T23:21:14Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I might be misremembering something off BBC2, but if there’s an alignment with the summer solstice sunrise, the winter solstice sunset is also aligned in the other direction. And vice versa. [/QUOTE] There isn’t an “other direction” in Newgrange, is there? It’s a one-entrance hole in a man-made hill. It’s at winter solstice that the sunrise sends a beam of light through the opening above the doorway (not the doorway itself, IIRC) straight down a tiny hallway to hit a particularly cool spot in the back of the “room”. It’s tiny inside, for such a big hill outside. I was in it with maybe a dozen people, and we were rather cozy. You have to make reservations years in advance to be there on the solstice. I was there sometime in March and they simulated the soltstice sunrise with a lightbulb. And it’s fucking awesome, in the “awe” some sense of the word! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/38 "2006-11-06T23:23:33Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] There isn’t an “other direction” in Newgrange, is there? [/QUOTE] Ummmm, good point. And now I remember, it was BBC/C4 summat-or-other, at a deserted Stonehenge on the winter solstice. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/39 "2006-11-07T07:26:22Z")
It has been pointed out that the winter solstice was much more important to ancient man then the summer one. If you stuck in the middle of a dark winter it’s good to know when the days will start to lengthen and you can look forward to warmth and the ability to plant your crops. Hence all the other celebrations that took place around the winter solstice, some of which became our Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Yellow\_Rights](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Yellow\_Rights](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yellow_Rights)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188/40 "2006-11-07T17:22:26Z")
Why is it so important to line up with the summer/winter solstice? Seems like a lot of effort when they could just draw a line in the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ol-stonehenge-is-there-any-other-like-it/379188.md?page=3)