Note: as of February 7, the court was adjourned for three weeks. Achill Henge is still standing and will be for a while longer!
Earlier news: The Mayo News says that the motion for an exemption that would allow Achill Henge to remain standing, and to be finished (we’re still dying to know what is to be put in the center!), has been denied, but the decision is being appealed.
Mr. McNamara, we are still cheering you on!!
The code didn’t work, but we tried to embed the video here. We recommend watching it.
People are collecting money to create a Stonehenge replica, fully aligned with the cosmos, for Burning Man* 2012. We quote:
“Whoever built Stonehenge, be it people, angels or aliens, gifted to us a breathtaking experience for which we are thankful but we feel, through our immeasurable gratitude and awe, that something is missing; …we’re replacing the Some of the Stone in Stonehenge with 100,000 watts of BASS. Huge speakers varying in size and shape will help comprise the imitation stone blocks we are using to recreate Stonehenge. You see, all we want to do to The Hanging Rock is add more Rock. And maybe throw a raging party on a timeless landmark.
To that end we have: Artists from a wide variance of musical and artistic genres, large scale lighting that will include over 120 LEDS lighting the outer ring of stones, pyrotechnics and fire art, crop circles projected on the surrounding playa, interactive art displays and multiple circus, performance, and fire troupes. This project is currently underway and will be presented at Burning Man 2012 In Correct Alignment with the sun, stars and the moon..”
Check it out. Dudes. Notice the gifts offered on the right side of the webpage to those who pledge. For a $300.00 pledge you get “a custom handmade BASShenge Druid Cloak with soft fuzzy lining. Color options available.” Dude!!
Of course, if this happens, people, we want pictures!
*There is a history of henges at the Burning Man Festival. We have posted two others, with links to more: Sol Henge, which was another large musically-related circle (links to a mudhenge and a twinkiehenge from Burning Man on that page), and a henge made of dead computer towers, another item doomed to extinction before long.
photo and awesome replica by Gabriel Thomson
It’s 2012. We expect to see a lot of awesomeness this year. In order to do our part, we are making this our first post of the year: a Lego replica of the 11,000-year-old megalithic complex called Göbekli Tepe in Turkey the Kurdish part). That’s right, folks–when Stonehenge was new, this was already way, way older than Stonehenge is to us right now!
Well, not this, exactly. This is a Lego. But you know what we mean–in the context of Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge would have to be considered a modern site. You know all of this, though–since you remember the post we did on that Meterhenge in July! (And, yes, happily we have learned the fine art of the umlaut since then.) We KNOW you read all of our posts! Still, if your memory is not what it used to be, try this link and this video (warning, it’s from the Ancient Aliens show. But it has Stonehenge in it!) to refresh your memory.
Anyway, back on the topic of replicas, we think this one is brilliant. It was created for a contest run by MOC, a Lego fandom group. We hope it did well! Someone pointed out that it even includes the sacred ancient mulberry tree that is near the site. That is the kind of detail we like.
Well done, Mr. Thomson. We can’t score it, not only because it is not Stonehenge but because no one even has the faintest idea of what kind of priests or priestesses would or (like the druids at Stonehenge) would not have supervised its building. If we did, this would probably get 9 of them.
Hope you’re rockin’ it this year! Until next time, happy henging!
photo and henge by Brock Davis
Happy New Year to all, and best wishes for 2012! Here is a link to the Google Image search for Stonehenge replica. Lots of images to enjoy there, and of course, that’s just a taste of what’s out there.
Will we be posting henges in the new year? That remains to be seen. But we guarantee that Stonehenge replicas will continue to be built!
We hope everyone will have a year of wonder, pleasure, and success, whatever that means to you. And until the next time, happy henging!
still from the movie Mists of Avalon
It’s time for our winter solstice post and we just stumbled on the knowledge that we missed a movie that includes a lintelled stone circle, so here it is! Please note that we have not seen this movie or even, in the interest of full disclosure, taken time to watch the entire clip from which we grabbed the picture above.
The movie, The Mists of Avalon, was made for television rather than the big screen and starred Anjelica Huston and The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, as Morgana. It has to do with the women connected with King Arthur and his not-so-very-good-friend-because-he-did-his-wife, Lancelot. It is based on a book by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and if you wish to know more, meet our friend Google and knock yourself out!
The point here is that it included a stone circle with one lintel over a pair of uprights, and that puts it in our wheelhouse. We are glad that they portray the stones as already ancient with all the paint worn off. Arthur came along long after the megaliths were erected.
Well, look, we have to get going, so here is this: we wish everyone out there a Good Yule, happy solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Joyous Festivus, Happy New Year, and/or whatever you celebrate or don’t celebrate! For those meeting tonight at Achill Henge or the henge at Esperance, we are with you in spirit! Oh, and those who meet at the great ruin on Salisbury Plain itself. Say hi for us!
And until next time, happy henging!
photo from the IrishTimes.com
Joe McNamara’s structure at Achill Island is being hailed as genius and a work of art by some, while others are seeking to demolish it. The good news is, it appears that it will be allowed to survive through solstice at least! (photo by Maurice Colgan).
Meanwhile, public opinion seems to favour it, as seen here. (You can vote to save the henge on the website Mayonews.ie.) And people are flocking there to see it and have their pictures taken with it. (news video of the henge at that link) We hear it will be up in court again today.We are interested in the outcome of this most controversial henge!
We thought it worth mentioning that some people are trying to plan a gathering at Achill Henge for winter solstice. You can find it as an event on Facebook here.
See the comment below if you want to vote to save the henge at Achill.
photo from Newgrange.com While we’re hanging out in Pollagh waiting to see what happens with the henge and what Mr. McNamara has planned for the center of his circle, we may as well pop over to the eastern side of the fair isle and have a look at the magnificent (if perhaps not completely accurate in restoration) passage tomb of Newgrange in the Boyne Valley. 
Although this is a blog about Stonehenge replicas, regular readers (it’s a harmless fantasy–permit us to keep it!) know that from time to time we post replicas of other megalithic sites. As a matter of fact, one our favourites has also been Irish–the wonderful bouncy dolmen modeled after the Poulnabrone Dolmen in County Clare. The Newgrange site, part of a larger Stone Age landscape in the Boyne Valley that includes the Knowth and Dowth mounds as well as other elements, is one of the oldest and best known Irish sites, so there are bound to be replicas. And here we see something unique–a full-scale model built right alongside the original! The description of the Newgrange Lightbox Project on Newgrange.com reads: “Niall Martin from the RTE TV programme Nationwide conceived a project to re-create the Newgrange lightbox, passage and chamber at the Winter Solstice. The Lightbox is an opening above the entrance to Newgrange, Archaeologists refer to it as a roofbox. The Lightbox and passage are aligned to direct the light from the rising sun around the Winter Solstice down the passage, lighting up the main chamber.” 
The picture at the top of this post is the replica and the second picture is the real entrance to the passage tomb. Nicely done! In the picture on the left you can see the project in construction right beside ancient Newgrange itself. Unfortunately it appears that Ireland’s notoriously changeable weather did not cooperate with the researchers, but as Clonehenge we are more interested in the look of the thing. We think they did a lovely job not only on the entrance portal, but also on the famous entrance stone, a stone that we found fascinating a full forty years ago and which is still one of the most extraordinary bits of rock art in the world. This stone single-handedly (if stones have hands) made the triple spiral a symbol of Celtic culture, completely disregarding the fact that the building of Newgrange took place at least a thousand years before Celtic culture reached verdant Hibernia! 
And while we’re on the topic, look at this! True, it is not so much a replica of Newgrange as a sort of jazz improvisation on the idea of Newgrange. Still, when we ran across this in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania a few weeks ago outside a shop that sells things from Ireland, we were delighted. It isn’t often that we actually see a replica of a megalithic site in person. And despite the liberties taken, it still has that Boyne Valley feel! We liked seeing an imitation of the glorious entrance stone. We’re told that the creator of this bit of whimsy is named Neville Chandler. Well done, Neville! And thank you. Anyone wanting to see the stunning light effects at the real Newgrange around winter solstice should have a look at this page. No chance for this year, but you can already sign up for a the lottery for a chance at a visit next year. Or why not start working on a replica of your own! We have resorted to noticing where the winter solstice sunrise light falls in our kitchen at home. After all, every inch of the earth is just as old as it is in the Boyne Valley and on Salisbury plain, right? Be your own sacred site! Until next time, friends, have a lovely pre-solstice season, and—happy henging!
photo from the Mayo News
Over the weekend, guerrilla henging was taken up a notch–actually, many notches!– as the construction above was put up in very short order. We will do a proper post another day, but for now we quote the article:
“A massive Stonehenge-esque structure has appeared on an Achill hilltop over the weekend. The man behind the clandestine project, the purpose of which remains unclear, is Achill native Joe McNamara, also known as ‘The Anglo Avenger’. The structure – dubbed Achill-henge – was built without planning permission. Towering nearly 15 feet from its base, it is 30 metres in diameter and has a circumference of close to 100 metres. Over 30 articulated trucks arrived in Pollagh on Friday from Galway carrying pre-cast concrete, and work began in mid-morning…
Reportedly over six months in planning, the enormous circular structure, which is located on commonage land above Pollagh, was erected at great speed but with a high level of precision. A group of men, with McNamara in charge, worked long hours over the weekend on its construction. The projected cost of its manufacture and installation is believed to be in excess of €1 million.
It is believed that the sun will rise and shine through the gaps between the ‘stones’ to light up a centre-piece on the site – a centre-piece yet to be built or revealed. What can be seen in the centre is a semi-circular outline for some sort of structure, but what shape or form that will take is unclear. It is believed that it won’t form part of the current development at Achill-henge but may be installed later.”
Fascinating! We eagerly await further developments. And, Mr. McNamara, we would not object to an exclusive Clonehenge interview. How often does henging meet the law? Any guerilla henger is a friend of ours! Henging–is it a new way to Occupy?
Our thanks to Barry Teague and Pete Glastonbury for alerting us to this news. If it is allowed to remain there, this will, of course, be added to our list of large permanent replicas, our first in Ireland.
Until next time, friends, happy henging!
photo by May Machado, used with permission
Here it is, the 72nd item on our list of large permanent replicas and our first on the continent of South America. Didn’t we tell you that we knew there had to be at least one? This is another replica associated with a planetarium, often a good place to look for a Stonehenge replica, large or small. For example there is the one at Kuala Lumpur and the trilithon at the Chicago planetarium. Often, if you keep your eyes open, you can find a little Stonehenge somewhere around a planetarium. It’s a thing.
We don’t know much about this one except that it is on the campus of the Centro de Estudos do Universo in São Paulo, Brazil. Or as the say in Portuguese, Brasil. This is actually not our first Brazilian replica. The mosaic fruit jelly henge we posted in 2009 as our 200th post was a Brazilian creation, made by Paula at the Cookie Shop. (Don’t click on that link and scroll down unless you enjoy drooling.)
You can see another shot of this replica here, where someone has come up with a wonderful new spelling: Stonehonge! Love it. And on another page describing the campus we found this bit: “also houses a replica of the small size archaeological site of Stonehenge, whose original is in England, and a replica of an Allosaurus.” Awesome.
But what made us realise that we now totally want to attend this school, was the school’s website, here. It has one of those headers that revolves among several photos, and the second photo shows a couple of extremely buff, scantily-dressed blue-headed aliens! We bet they don’t have any trouble getting beer for keggers.
And now for the henge itself. At first glance, the uprights are so narrow for their height that the casual observer might assume no one even actually looked at Stonehenge. A closer look, however, reveals to our delight that the trilithon horseshoe once again faces the three-lintel stretch in the outside circle. You get points for that, people!
Remember that for when the Stonehenge virus overtakes you and you end up shoveling mud in through the window of your basement and building a Stonehenge while your spouse yells at you and grabs the kids and moves to his or her parents’ place. Which is really more important–keeping your family, or the score you get on the Clonehenge blog? That’s right, folks,–keep your priorities straight and make sure that the horseshoe faces the right way!
Score for our Brazilian Stonehenge, 7 druids! We now have large permanent replicas on every continent but Antarctica, and since the snow and isolation there serve to activate the virus and force people there to build snowhenges on a regular basis (one example here, I think we’ve posted four so far), we’re not worried about that one. Unless someone can make us a penguin-henge. No, no–that would be bird abuse. Bad blogger!!
Listen, please don’t take this to mean we’ll now be posting on a regular basis. We just have so many replicas stacking up that we had to relieve the pressure a little. Many thanks to all who send them. Don’t forget you can post your own pictures on the Clonehenge Facebook group. So get henging! And to you Statesiders, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving!
And since today is the start of Clonehenge’s fourth year, happy birthday to us!
CLONEHENGE 