Monthly Archives for January 2009

LiteFX–Stonehenge Lit From Within

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photo and henge by Anne and David Campbell of Lite FX, used with permission

And now, as they say, for something completely different: LED-lit selenite henges handmade by special effects experts in Scotland (see the link here). You can see similar ones (but without lintels) on this webpage, but alas they are no longer being made for sale, except perhaps if you have the cash to commission one.

David says: “the ‘stones’ are made from selenite, and light is transmitted through them from l.e.d.’s in the base. This has to be done very carefully or the brightness diminishes rapidly. Some models were purely decorative, but some had accurate stone sizes and arrangements that permitted use as a miniature calendar. We originally intended the henges to be used at night and outdoors, and made them run from mains or battery power.”

The ancients might have envied us if they knew we could have miniature Stonehenges that glowed in the dark! Selenite, we’re told, dissolves easily and can’t be used outdoors, but no doubt one day someone will build a full-sized permanent Stonehenge replica that glows. It’s science types who seem most fascinated by Stonehenge and they’re the ones who can sort the details.

Structurally, of course, this isn’t an accurate replica, but we feel inclined to slip them some druids for originality and just total brilliance! Score: 7 druids for the crystal light transmission henge.

Druids’ Temple, A Yorkshire Folly

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photos by Mick of the Yorkshire Guide, with permission

Building Stonehenge-like constructions based on fantasies about druids and their mystic, perhaps grotesque, rituals among the stones became the fashion in Great Britain from the late 1700s into the 1800s*. Perhaps it is a matter of the Brits once again being way ahead of the curve!

druids-temple-4This Druids’ or Druid’s Temple stands near Ilton in Yorkshire, and is an oval rather than a circle, looking more like a ruined longbarrow than a henge, but we include it because of the builder’s intent. You can read a little of its story here, and more pictures here. It has an altar stone, a heel stone, and other megalithic paraphernalia associated with it.

The designer seems to have been caught up in a romantic vision of magical druidism. Interesting how often people feel they must improve on Stonehenge,  considering its popularity. Even in pictures people add various colours and sky effects as if the original just isn’t good enough. Score for this gaudy bauble of a replica: 7½ druids. Nice stones! And it’s another example of modern megaliths built where ancient ones abound.

*[Note: Several more older Stonehenge-like follies exist in Great Britain, but we cannot find pictures and so cannot bring them to you.]

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Indian River Reptile Zoo–Ontario strikes again!

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photo by Stella Daniella, with permission

Just a few miles from Petroglyphs Provincial Park and Serpent Mounds Park near  Peterborough, Ontario is the Indian River Reptile Zoo. Fans of snakes, lizards, alligators and turtles flock here for cold-blooded fun AND to pose for pictures at Stonehenge. Why Stonehenge at a reptile zoo? We’d love to know!

It’s sort of a funny replica, from what we can see, with some elements that  suggest one of the stone circles at Calanish, and lintels on some of the other stones. But quirkiness can generate druids here at the Clonehenge blog as long as it is not the kind that makes us slap our foreheads.

petroglyphsIts proximity to a famous petroglyph site and the notable Serpent Mound complex (not to be confused with its more renowned Ohio counterpart) intrigues us. The Paju City Stonehenge, too, is near ancient megalithic sites. Near Clonehenge headquarters there is a similar situation with modern megaliths erected in a place surrounded by prehistoric stonework. It brings up a favourite question: do some landscapes speak to our subconcious minds and urge us to do this sort of thing? But, hey, our job here is just to score. We’re giving this thing 7 druids because—reptiles and Stonehenge–random much?

Later note–received this in an email from Edward Loyst: “You asked why a Stonehenge at a reptile Zoo…Well here are the facts. The Indian River Reptile Zoo is my son’s creation. he designed the state of the art building and safe climate controlled facilities exclusively for reptiles. Bryont has now been Curator of this CAZA accredited zoo for 10 years.The zoo is located on 36 acres near Peterborough Ontario and features indoor and outdoor exhibits of snakes turtles lizards and alligators…. as well as an educational lecture centre and a 2km nature trail. The Standing stones as we call them are my creation . My son made the mistake of allowing me to design the picnic area and when he was busy worrying about building a modern reptile zoo I went to a granite quarry 30km away and trucked in several (10) truck loads of giant slabs (stones up to 7tons each) of Belmont Pink Granite and planted them in the picnic area.People love the stones and the good part is there are a dozen more megalithic stones still to be planted. This is all part of my master plan to build a botanical garden with pathways wandering by the stones and flowers. I will send you new pictures later this year when the next section is complete.”

He included a website, a page of which has pictures of megalithia, including a trilithon. And some things that look a lot like Easter Island moai. Thank you! We look forward to those pictures and will do a separate post when we receive them.

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Stonehenge and Golf–Why?

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photo by Jo Wallace

There’s an intriguing connection between golf and Stonehenge (remember Montana’s beautifulreplica?). A surprising number of regular golf courses are named Stonehenge and some crazy golf entrepreneurs feel the attraction as well. The golf course above is in Norfolk, U.K.  and is the only big red Stonehenge we have ever seen. The one below, at Stonehenge Golf Centre, is in Larkhill, Wiltshire.

stonehenge-mini-golThere’s a brilliant one in Thailand, too, the link to which we seem to have mislaid, so we’ll add it when we locate it again. Stonehenge shouldn’t feel special, though. Minigolf and crazy golf contribute other replicas as well favouring things like the Taj Mahal, the pyramids and the Sphinx.

We’ll give the first one 5 druids and the second the same. But we admit we would go out of our ways to play at either course. Meet you there at solstice!

Another Henge for Your Garden, out of Ohio

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photo and henge by Kelly Lawrence, with permission

Another day and another Stonehenge-for-sale, but what a difference a day makes! From Green Mantle Studio in the land of the Indian mounds comes this nice little fired, painted, and water-sealed Stonehenge. They are produced only when ordered, with individual care given to each piece.

Kelly, the artist, explains its origins: “One of my more popular pieces is a Dolmen Toad House which inspired one of my customers to commission me to make a full Stonehenge replica for his garden. He wanted it to represent the monument as it was not as it is today so there are 30 uprights and 30 lintels in the outer ring, 5 trilithons make up the horseshoe in the center and finally the set includes both an altar stone and a heel stone.”

The ditch and bank are up to you. And if you buy one of these, believe me, we’ll be around to make sure you follow through! We are pleased that the dolmen came first and that this replica was someone else’s request. We also approve of a lack of Easter Island heads on the site!

Scoring: 6½ druids for this pleasing American henge. It’s tempting–just to see the looks on our neighbors’ faces. Does it come in Extra Extra Large?

Mysteries of Ancient Stonehenge, or What is resin, anyway?

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from Toscano website

Taking the easy way out today, we’re posting a commercial Stonehenge replica, this one sold by Design Toscano, which sells mostly figurines and statuary for home and garden. This replica is made of resin of some kind painted to look like metal, resin pretty much being any substance that starts out viscous and ends up solid. At least when you buy it, you get a Certificate of Authenticity! 😛

It is a handsome little thing for the den or library if you have one. It looks well proportioned and includes both sarsen and bluestone features. The thing is, there’s something funny about a handsome little Stonehenge for your den. But these are the days of dragons for your den, gargoyles for your library and fairies for your desk, and for a lot of people, Stonehenge fits right in there. One man’s archaeological site is another man’s mystical fantasy.

So what do you think? How many druids do we give this Stonehenge that could double as a pen holder? Score: 5½ druids. It’s not funny enough to score big and yet–we can’t take it seriously!

Thinking of Avebury Replicas

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Table once owned by Roger Bolton, photo by Pete Glastonbury— a model of Avebury as it is thought to have looked at its height

Time out from our mission here to look at Avebury replicas. There aren’t many, but they do exist. We have made a point so far of avoiding lintel-less stone circles unless there is something else special and Stonehenge-like about them. There are probably as many modern stone circles as there are Stonehenge replicas, and we had to draw the line somewhere.

Avebury, however, is a special case for several reasons, including physical closeness and probable other connections to Stonehenge as well as the  fact that at 427 meters in diameter it is the largest stone circle in the world.  Yet few replicas exist.

avebury-google-earth[Avebury on Google Earth] Although a great many of its stones are now missing, Avebury is one of the wonders of the British countryside and likely part of a ritual complex that included a megalithic avenue leading to it, Silbury Hill, the West Kennet Long Barrow, and other less well known but fascinating features. It, too, is a henge and roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, which is nearby, although Avebury’s stones probably went up first.

avebury-cots21[One of 2 Avebury models from the DVD The Children of the Stones] Somehow Avebury never acquired the cache Stonehenge has. Yet a few small replicas do exist, and this evening we present two, courtesy of Mr. P. Glastonbury, megarak and photographer extraordinaire. We won’t score them. To see more photos of Avebury itself and some high dynamic range panoramas of it and other places, visit Pete Glastonbury’s site. I suppose next we’ll have people making mounds of dirt and sending us pictures of Silbury Hill replicas. Even the aliens who make crop circles agree–there’s something about Wiltshire!

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Cheesehenge, non-virtual

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photo and henge by Kilaana, also see this one

Time for a foodhenge again. That the only cheesehenge we’ve posted so far was a virtual image is a situation that must be rectified, so we return to our henging friend Kilaana for her High Dynamic Range image of this Stonehenge of cheese. For her gardenhenge Kilaana hand cast the stones from cement. The cheese required less work, but she made up for it in the production of the photo.

Kilaana’s pictures make up 4/7 of the Cheesehenge Pool on Flickr, but on the web and apparently in the world, cheesehenges abound. They rank with straw and hay henges, blockhenges, boxhenges, beach stonehenges, cookie[biscuit]henges, and snowhenges (I know there are a few more), as the most frequently made–or at least posted–hengeworks.

As for scoring, we see in the other photos that Kilaana makes a point of placing a few trilithons in the middle of the linteled circle. And going to the trouble of merging three images just for a photo of a cheesehenge shows dedication that demands respect. Score: 6 druids for this yummy henge.

Tourist Trap, Proposed Stonehenge Model for Visitors’ Center, 1998

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photos from Stonehenge II proposal by Aleksandra Mir , more at link.

Posting two rather serious British-made Stonehenge models in a row may be a mistake but a permission we’d hoped for hasn’t come through. The two are very different.  Here “the proposal was to build a Stonehenge replica close to the original, to reduce the volume of pedestrian traffic and save this piece of cultural heritage from further destruction. To compensate for the necessary limited access to Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II would allow full access and promote a wide range of activities on its grounds.”

As you see, tourists would be encouraged to touch and enjoy the model if they wished. However, it seems to us that what tourists wish is to touch the ageless stones of the original, not false new stones, of whatever material.

stonehenge-mir-1This Stonehenge II has not been built, nor is it planned at this point. But as a model we must say that of all the miniatures this is most detailed and closest to the original. We even see Aubrey holes and certainly the ditch and bank, plus every stone correct in size and place. (We also enjoy the giant bird perched on one lintel.)

Scoring–well, keep in mind that we are looking at a model of a nonexistent replica, not a model of Stonehenge itself.  Still, we are forced to give this a good 8½ druids. Full sized, it woud have gotten the elusive 9½. But let’s face it–Peephenge and Cheese curl henge are a lot more fun!

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