Hop Henge: India Pale Ale

bottle-hop-henge1

Here’s something in keeping with the holidays: an Imperial IPA from a small brewery in central Oregon. And according to the site it actually was named after a henge:

“When one of our brewers suggested we name our new IPA Hop Henge, he also came up with the idea of actually recreating Stonehenge, only with hop bales. We were up for the challenge and even though the weather did not want to cooperate, we pulled it off and threw a party afterwards.”

So it’s a henge replica beer, the only one we know of! Maybe they were inspired by the Maryhill replica which is near the Oregon/Washington border. The ale gets very good reviews on the beer sites and blogs, but we at Clonehenge, never having tried it (sadly), make no guarantees. The henge itself, of course, is represented only by an artist’s rendering, the accuracy of which we cannot know, although there is another, better, picture at the bottom of this page here.

Stonehenge replicas turn up everywhere, don’t they? We think this one is kind of fun. Score: 7 druids for Deschute’s Hop Henge. Thank you for giving Clonehenge a favourite ale!

Harryport Henge, Illinois

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photo (cropped) from the website of the Illinois Powered Paragliding Association

One of the joys of producing this blog is finding Stonehenge replicas that haven’t made it onto the big lists yet. One example was the Oklahoma replica and this one in Illinois is another, the henge at Harryport (a private airfield), or, as it is termed in this link describing the process, Harry Rossett’s Stonehenge. Lots of good pictures on that link, of the creation of this henge which is made of foam covered with concrete. You can see it here on Google Maps:

We cannot say that building a full-sized Stonehenge replica is a sign of good character (It may be. Needz moar rsrch!), but it is a likely indicator of good humour and a guarantee that one is a Very Interesting Person. We have an inkling that one of the main motives behind this henge may have been testosteronic bravado–which was probably what generated the original Stonehenge, too, at least in part, so cheers to Harry Rossett! The stone shapes and proportions are off and the whole thing looks more skinny than ponderous, but we’ll give him a 6 druid score for his hangglider henge!

Stonehenge at Burning Man, Nevada

This replica, referred to by some as Sol Henge, was built for the Burning Man Festival in 2004. It is actually a sound system, a henge of giant speakers built by Sol Systems, a group of entrepeneurs who tell the story of Sol Henge at this link. See another picture here.

If you don’t know what the Burning Man Festival is, this post is not the place to learn it, but we will say that giant lit-up speaker-henges are probably one of the more pedestrian things about it. There does seem to be an affinity between Stonehenge and Burning Man. In other years there have been a Twinkie Henge (“just like Stonehenge but it will last longer”–2000) and a MudHenge (1996).

As for Sol Henge, it’s difficult to score. It seems to have an opposite effect to the original, not quiet power but fantastic effect, as if it is meant to point one’s attention at oneself instead of outward, and more about the senses than the yearnings. Of course, it may just be a more roundabout route to the same goal. No doubt it depends on the perceiver. Score: 7 druids for the henge in the desert, lit from within.

See first comment for information from one of Sol Henge’s creators!

Sandstone Henge, Tasmania

tasmanian-stonehenge

photo by ron_co2002, with permission

The holiday over, we are off again on our world tour, this time far south to Buckland, Tasmania and a sandstone Stonehenge replica built by Design in Stone, a sandstone processing plant. Unfortunately, the photo above and the photo on their site are so different that it is difficult to get a sense of what the finished henge is like.

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Tasmania has a bit of a henge fetish, it seems. A very nice straw henge was also displayed prominently there one summer and numerous pictures of it appear on the web (Straw and hay henges are practically a blog to themselves, but we will post some outstanding ones as time goes on.) Why do some places seem to generate more henges than others? It’s a curious phenomenon.

If we get more information on this replica, we’ll add it to this post. For now we’ll award 6 druids, partly just for being tucked away in such a remote corner. At one time we would have been surprised to learn of a Stonehenge in Tasmania, but we know now that we live in a Stonehenge-mad world, and half expect to see one around every corner!

The Henge at Babbacombe, Devon, U.K.

photo by trollpowersaab, with permission

We usually try to mix it up, leaving days between similar henges, but the picture above seemed just right for Christmas eve. Babbacombe Model Village is a collection of scale models of buildings and scenes, one of them, of course, being another miniature version of our old friend from Salisbury Plain. This time of year, the whole display is supplied with artificial snow and festooned with holiday lights.

Here’s another view of the model, in the form of an e-postcard you can send through the Babbacombe website. Interestingly, in 2005 mini-druids began appearing mysteriously throughout the village, in what was called a Banksy-like incident!

We feel like we should like this replica a little more than we do. It looks pretty good, and yet something is just not right, maybe the proportions, maybe just a lack in gravitas. For its purpose, however, it is completely adequate, and it’s the holidays so we’ll be generous. Score: 7½ druids for the model henge. Happy Christmas, everyone! Expect tomorrow’s post to be a short one.

Lego Stonehenge, Legoland Windsor

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photo by top_gun_1uk, with permission

Back to Stonehenge’s home country for today’s post, and a Stonehenge made of something that may be under a Christmas tree near you in two days’ time–less, really! At Legoland Windsor, outside London, visitors are treated to this mini-Stonehenge of Lego bricks, complete with mini-people and backed by a miniature Glastonbury Tor.

The Lego company sponsored a Stonehenge-making contest this summer, by the way, and you can see the winners here. That many of them are not made of Legos surprised us, but it’s an interesting (to us, anyway) collection of replicas. Well done, kids!

Compared to some henges we’ve posted lately, at least whoever made the henge above took time to look at Stonehenge first. The “stones” have those characteristic Stonehenge proportions and the look of rounded squareness that many models fail to capture. The colour was a nice choice, too. Lego professionals know how to get it done! Score: 7½ druids for the plastic megaliths of brick.

Stonehenge: Athens, Georgia

Stonehenge in Athens, Georgia.

photo by Bill Windsor from RoundAmerica.com, with permission

Wow, it’s cold here in Clonehenge territory, so how about a post from a warmer clime? This one’s down in Georgia, home of the Guidestones, which we will get to another day. This is quite a different monument, originally built at the entrance to a subdivision called Stonehenge. It is the only henge we know of to have the name Stonehenge carved into its lintel.

Well, look at it. This was never a serious replica, but more of an elaborate sign. The only interesting thing about it is the names of the streets around it: Heelstone Avenue, Salisbury Plain Drive, Sarsen Circle and so on. A nice twist, but it won’t help it with the judges when they do the scoring. Score: 3 druids. But the thing is, we still couldn’t resist visiting it if we were in the area. Must be that Stonehenge mystique!

Here it is on Google Street View!

Snowhenge the First, Antarctica

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photo by David Mantripp, with permission

And here it is, folks, as we roll into winter solstice, our first henge from Antarctica. Not the only one mind you–it seems that all that time down there without TV, stuck in a building with a small group of people in the midst of a monotonous landscape, possibly with an excess of banjo music (that last is just a hunch!) takes people to that unique point on the psychological landscape where building a henge seems either like the logical thing or the most hilarious thing to do. And there they are with all that snow to work with . . .

In this case, the man behind the camera even took the name Snowhenge and has a website, recently refurbished, at snowhenge.net , which includes this delightful and touching bit of henge explication:

“Snowhenge is, or was, an artefact built in January 1992 on the Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Its architects were myself, Jeff Ridley, and Peter Webb. It doesn’t have a deep and meaningful reason, but it goes to show that there isn’t much on TV in Antarctica. It was used in an experimental effort to invoke Druidic powers to refill a sadly depleted bottle of Bushmill’s best Irish Whiskey, but this ended in tragic failure.”

We wish it had worked. What a coup for henge building! Maybe it was a design flaw. If any of you perfect the technique, please write. As for score, well, it’s a new continent for Clonehenge, quite far away. The thought that a wild penguin could wander through one of those trilithons gives us chills! Plus we’re a sucker for a good henge story and, heck, we can see the Bushmills in the picture to illustrate it . . . so 8½ druids for the henge from where December days are long. Happy solstice, everyone!

Major West’s Stonehenge, built c. 1830

quinta-house

photo from this page of a Polish site on Stonehenge

Today is the one month anniversary of the start of Clonehenge and our 50th post. We did finally find some Stonehenge replicas from Antarctica (guess what they’re made of!), but permissions for the photos have not come through, so we will instead post the earliest Stonehenge replica we can find a picture for, a folly built near Quinta House by Major Richard West, somewhere around 1830. One reference says it’s in Shropshire, another says Denbighshire. [And word is in–Shropshire it is!)

If you’re interested in Stonehenge replicas, then be sure to click on the link in the caption, the replica page of Krzysztof Kułacki’s Stonehenge site. It’s a very interesting site and he has some different replicas on his list, including this one. There’s more info on this replica in this book, by Aubrey Burl.

Compared to some we have seen in the last month, this is a weak stone circle, but being the earliest of its kind (that we could find) helps it with the judges. Score: 8 druids for this forerunner henge!

And thank you to any and all readers and contributors out there for joining us for the first month of fun. Many more to come, although posting may slow somewhat from now until the New Year begins. Tomorrow is solstice, isn’t it? We may look at a different kind of Stonehenge replica for that.

Nunica Henge, Michigan

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photo by Daniel E. Johnson, with permission

First we must say many thanks to Daniel E. Johnson for service above and beyond the call of duty, for acquiring this lovely snow picture of the Nunica Michigan henge after we asked if he had one. His other pictures of this henge can be seen here.

This Stonehenge replica is on the private property of Fred and Pam Levin, but can be seen from the road. Here we see a case (finally?) where the builders were actually motivated to build their replica by an interest in sacred sites. They also have a labyrinth and a medicine wheel. A nice little write-up about it can be seen ¾ of the way down this page.

For a foam and stucco copy, this structure has a very nice look, avoiding the packing-peanut look of Virginia’s foamhenge and somehow capturing an essence often missed in these things, perhaps because the sense of the sacred was their goal. Of course some of it may be Mr. Johnson’s knack at photography. As you can tell, we’re impressed! Score: 8½ druids for the Levins’ excellent effort!

CLONEHENGE

A blog about Stonehenge Replicas. We kid you not.

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