Tag Archives for stonehenge replica

Festival Henges, 2012! Part One: Audio Soup Festival

One trilithon of the Audio Soup Henge, decorated

Back after our delightful holidays which included a funeral, an alarming incident in which we fell on our faces, and a bad cold. If you hear us coughing or sniffling during this post, kindly pretend not to notice!

We know of two henges built for festivals this summer, although there were almost certainly more somewhere. The trilithon in the photo above belongs to one made by the infamous Henge Collective for a music festival called Audio Soup in Garvald, East Lothian (that’s Scotland, for those who are opening a tab for Google just now). interestingly, they were invited to henge at the festival, the first instance we’ve heard of public henging by invitation!

We know what you’re sitting there thinking. It doesn’t look much like Stonehenge. True, but you have to understand that the Henge Collective are sort of the Impressionists or almost Abstract Expressionists of the henging world. They deal in nuance, subtly suggesting Stonehenge rather than blatantly coming out and screaming it. At least that is what we choose to believe!

We do like the knit or crochet decorations. We are of the school who believe that originally the stones of Stonehenge were decorated, both permanently in some ways and seasonally with more colourful and perishable things draped and laid at their bases, so we find this fitting.

As for score? 5½ druids for the bold hengers! We are excited for them and pleased that henging by invitation is now a thing! Who knows where this will lead? Hengers invited in by the United Nations? Or Parliament? Hengers at sea? Henging by robots on Mars? The possibilities are endless.

Next up: Burning Man and its henge tradition. Until then, friends, happy henging!

“I can recognise every stone” A Stonehenge Expert Visits a Replica!

This is too good not to share. Watch and listen as Mike Pitts, archaeologist and self-proclaimed Stonehenge geek, has a look around Sacrilege, the inflatable bouncy Stonehenge, with its maker, artist Jeremy Deller. Mike Pitts recognises and discusses individual stones he knows from Stonehenge itself while enjoying his first-ever experience on a bouncy castle. Meanwhile children are bouncing and shouting all around them. We found this video utterly delightful!

You know you have made a top-notch Stonehenge replica when Mike Pitts goes out of his way to visit it and takes time to admire and point out characteristics he recognises from the original stones. Take note, hengers.

Catching Up: Small Henges and Some News–Welcome, Blokes and Sheilas!

One of Kyle van Oldeniel’s excellent small Stonehenges

We have gotten ourselves into a bit of  a pickle (hmmm….have we ever posted a picklehenge?). We have let things go for so long that we have enough henges and henging news to fill five or more posts, even with multiple henges per post. We were going to blame it on the interns, who are always messaging away on the expensive smart phones their parents bought them, but as long as we are making people up, why not blame it on our evil nemesis, who hates Stonehenge replicas and wants to end Clonehenge forever. Yeah, that’s it–we TRY to post but he foils us at every turn!

But apparently we have vanquished him, because here we are at long last! The mini-Stonehenge above was created by Kyle van Oldeniel, who lives on the west coast of Scotland. He has created this and a number of other exquisite little henges, like small art works expressing his longing for the mystery, timelessness, and connection to the earth that Stonehenge represents. He has posted more in the Henge Collective group on Facebook. Too nice for our blog, actually! Thank you, Mr. van Oldeniel–well done.

Jumper (or sweater) henge, created for the birthday of Simon Burrow

The picture above was posted to the Clonehenge group on Facebook by none other than friend of the blog Simon Burrow. It reminds us a little of the clothes henge created by Markus Georg. This may not look like much, but it is undeniably eccentric in conception and unique in the henging world for its casual laundry-pile styling and variations in colour and patterns. We do not recall seeing striped or flowered stones in a henge before! What it lacks in accuracy it makes up for in, well, in… thingy! Well done! Ish.

Flip-flop Henge by Liz Smith Yeats

And as long as we are looking at henges made of things we wear, here is Flip-flop Henge as created and posted by Liz Smith Yeats on the Clonehenge Facebook group, where there is much more up-to-date henging news and pictures than you’ll find on the blog, with the advantage of not having to read our dreadful don’t-you-think-we’re-funny commentary! It’s not that we’re desperate to have you join the group, it’s just that if you are actually interested in henging and hengers, you can keep up despite our troubles with our intern/nemesis/broken hands/dial-up/IE6, pet dragons, etc.

At any rate, Ms. Yeats (any relation?!) says, “Hoping you find this a worthy effort. The backstory is that I find Flip-Flops to be loathsome and will stop at nothing to remove them from the realms of footwear.”

Indeed, Ms. Yeats, we find it worthy! And creating a Stonehenge replica out of dodgy footwear is solidly in the spirit of Clonehenge!

We have many more small henges to post when our interns stop messaging their friends and annihilate our nemesis! And download Chrome. And start taking the dragons out for their daily rides so they’re too tired to keep us from posting. Etcetera. And there are at least two temporary large henges to post: that Basshenge from Burning Man that we posted about in its planning stages, and the Henge Collective’s wood henge from the Audio Soup festival.

Also, there continues to be news: links to Clonehenge have been posted on the website of Current Archaeology Magazine (for a while) as well as our being mentioned in a radio show to be broadcast in Australia on Sunday, 9 September. We learned that the decision has been made, sadly, to film parts of Thor: the Dark World at Stonehenge instead of building one. We would have liked to see what they came up with! And we learned that in Roman Polanski’s movie Tess, a replica was used instead of the real thing! We have no pictures yet, but the interns are working on it!

If you live in Oz and this is your first look at Clonehenge, we have one word for you: Esperance! One of the finest recent additions to the world of Stonehenge replicas. You can be proud.

This post has exceeded recommended dosages, so, until next time, mates, happy henging!

They Nicked Our Name, But It’s Worth It: Achill Henge on the Radio!

Just a picture of their page–but click through for the audio

This week we were alerted to an Irish radio documentary about Achill Henge, one name for an, some say, illegal construction on an island off Ireland, as our regular readers know. We have been yammering on and about Achill (pronounced ACK-il, not AY-chill) Henge since its inception, and while we respect the rights of people to decide what is to be permitted on their common land, we will be a bit sad if and when the builder, one Joe McNamara, has to take it down.

Meanwhile, here is a link to this brilliant radio documentary, brilliantly entitled Clonehenge ! And no, we do not say we like it solely because everything sounds better and smarter when said in an Irish accent (as we were told on our mothers’ knee). Or because anything about a Stonehenge replica is more interesting to us than anything that is not about a Stonehenge replica. Well, maybe a bit. Of each.

Still, how could we not like it when there’s this conversation:

“I’ve been to Stonehenge and it didn’t impress me. But this impressed me.” “You’re only saying that ’cause you’re Irish.” “Absolutely!” “If Stonehenge was up the road, you’d be sayin’ it’s great.” “Yes, I would.” Laughter.

It also brings up some points worth mentioning. McNamara was stopped before he ever got to complete Achill Henge. No one knows what was meant to go in the center or if there was more to it. We may never know. *we sigh and make puppy eyes at the planning board*

Also it mentions the archaeo-acoustic research that was done at Maryhill, Washington replica, saying that the Maryhill replica is a bit rough, or something to that effect. We agree and have often thought that archaeo-acoustic research at Maryhill can hardly be relevant to the acoustics at the real Stonehenge–the “stones” at the Washington replica are so differently shaped, proportioned, and textured, and of course of a completely different material. Don’t all of those factors affect acoustics? Did those researchers just want funding to visit the Pacific Northwest?*

But best of all, unlike this post, the radio documentary is quite entertaining and leaves one with a smile. And there is a lovely gallery of pictures to click through, which we would have nicked and posted here if we knew how. Our thanks to its creator, Ronan Kelly. If we could, we would hire him to be on the Clonehenge, the Series, the one where we visit a Stonehenge replica per week, discuss it and interview visitors. No, we don’t have all of the details worked out just yet. Or the funding. But it is real n our minds and that’s what counts!

And, hey, Joe McNamara, we salute you. Don’t stop now! Until next time, friends, happy henging!

* So do we! But free tickets to visit Achill Henge will be even more eagerly accepted!

P.S.: We have relearned how to spell “nicked” after aliens abducted us and removed the spelling from our memory. Someone ought to do something about those pesky things!

GoStonehengeTour: Kickstarting the Dream of the Mobile Foamhenge!

from the Stonehenge: the American Tour Facebook page

This is a blog dedicated to the idea of the Stonehenge replica and its endless variations, not because we think Stonehenge replicas are a good idea–if that were true, this would be a serious blog–but on the contrary because we think the whole idea is by its very nature ridiculous and in some hard-to-define way, unrelentingly humourous.* People just can’t help themselves!

That said, there is, of course, nothing funny about an exact replica of Stonehenge made of foam being loaded onto an eighteen-wheeler and carted around North America so people can experience Stonehenge without having to meet any English people or accidentally photograph sheep. Well, we’re glad you don’t find it funny, because an enterprising group of students from Tallahassee has created a Kickstarter–an internet method of generating contributions from small but interesting projects–to do exactly that. Here is part of the pitch on their Kickstarter page:

“A monument of such amazing wonder and beauty should be seen by as many people as possible, don’t you think? However, visiting Stonehenge is much harder than it seems, and only a limited number of people WORLDWIDE see it each year, and even then, only a fraction of those people purchase the special access pass which is required to let them walk among the stones. Imagine all the hassle that goes into seeing this epic monument. Now, imagine just having to travel to a museum near you to walk amongst its legendary beauty.”

Nothing humourous there! Americans will be able to travel a short distance, walk among the foam stones, experience 4000 years of history, and not handle any of that funny money! Where they are getting the 4000-year-old foam, we are not certain, but there is still time for the details to be ironed out.

Another page announces: “We are planning five festivals to celebrate the exhibit, each one will involve several days of celebration, with camping, eating, music, art exhibits, dancing, all night fires, staged pagan rituals, and the whole druid party thing.” Splendid.

We were, of course, bemused to see their statement that it would be the “first life-size replica”. Hello, have we met?** It is remarkable how often we see this claim, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, and no doubt whoever is doing the Clonehenge blog hundreds of years from now (bless their semi-organic hearts) will see the same thing–no one ever checks first! The claim that it will be the world’s most accurate replica, however, is welcome. Make it so!

Stonehenge: the American Tour, GoStonehengeTour, and one or two other names are used, but they are all the same project. Visit their Facebook page! Pledge money! Make this a reality, gentle hengeophiles! A pledge to this Kickstarter is a vote for Stonehenge, or a vote for absurdity. Either way, we all win!

[We will not even attempt to address the motto: “If we build it, will you come?”]

In the past year, we have seen a Stonehenge replica built of recycled stones in Australia, a guerilla replica, for which a man was arrested, built in Ireland, a full-sized inflatable Stonehenge touring the UK, a group formed to build henges, more than one wonderful cakehenge, and numerous others of various natures. What next? Only the Stonehenge brain virus knows for sure! Stay tuned, and happy henging!

* Unlike our posts.

** Maryhill, Washington’s replica springs to mind, as well as the one in Montana, Esperance Australia’s replica, and the remarkable but now defunct BBC Foamhenge. There may be others on the List of Permanent Replicas.

Olympic Horse Hurdle Henge: Has the Empire Fallen So Far?!

Olympic horse event Stonehenge

This is not a post so much as an alert. Hengefinder General (E class) Glastonbury’s keen eye noticed these hurdles at one of the Olympic horse events.

I think we can say with some confidence that this is not where your Olympic millions have gone. Still, we post Stonehenge replicas, so here it is!

Another view, taken from the television

We knew there would be Stonehenge replicas connected with the Olympic summer in England. We were tickled with the bouncy Stonehenge, disappointed with the choice of Glastonbury Tor for the opening ceremony. Now we have these.  The stones are very squared off, of wrong proportions (too thin for their height), painted like a secondary school theatre set, and of course, set up like horse hurdles. A little pathetic, but another sign of the hengemania seizing the world!

Our thanks to Pete Glastonbury for noticing these and taking the pictures from the telly. We’re glad that King of the Mountain is not an Olympic sport. We shudder to imagine the muddy little Silbury Hill replica they might have produced!

And until next time, happy henging!

Solstice Again, Innit? Part the First!

wooden model made in preparation for the famous Icehenge in Alaska

When you are somewhat lazy-arsed, as we are, it helps a great deal to have friends who are not similarly handicapped. We have a number of friends who keep an eye to the news and alert us when they find new Stonehenge replicas, old ones, too, if there is a chance we haven’t seen them. Today, in honour of the summer solstice, 2012, one half year, a mere six months, until nothing happens and everyone is deeply shocked to find the world hasn’t ended after all and they are going to have to find a way to pay for all that stuff they put on their credit cards, [drumroll] we are going to award two of our alert friends and readers with the title of Hengefinder General, Extraordinaire. In this post we fete the wonderful ancient sites photographer, Mr. Peter Glastonbury of Wiltshire. No one has brought more henges to our attention or contributed more to the Clonehenge blog than this fine fellow, and we hereby thank and salute him!

The replica above is an example of the brilliant henges we have had from Hengefinder Glastonbury. It is a photo of a painted wooden model made for the crew that created the beautiful Stonehenge replica made of ice in Fairbanks, Alaska some years ago. In a message passed along to us, Martin Gutoski says of it, “A local artist made a wooden model of it at the architect scale of ¼” = 1’ for the ice carvers to use but it recently burned up with his house fire last spring.” Truly it was a thing of beauty!

Page of the June 22, 1898 issue of The Sketch

The item above is another of his recent contributions: two historical small replicas in an article entitled The Strange Story of Stonehenge, dating from the 1890s! We surmise that the top one, a replica of Stonehenge in recent times, may be one of Henry Browne’s cork models. The other, of a “completed” Stonehenge, appear to be made of wood and may be one that was on display at the British Museum or perhaps the Ashmolean. See–knowledge of Stonehenge replicas can be a scholarly pursuit! If you’re not careful. Which we are. So you needn’t worry! An interesting bit of this article is where the author mentions the theory that a sacred oak once grew in the very middle of Stonehenge. We hadn’t heard that one before.

Article from The Graphic, September 2, 1922

Hengefinder Extraordinaire Glastonbury also sent us this article with pictures of a Stonehenge model made by the author, H. N-Hutchison,  which is entitled What Stonehenge Probably Looked Like when Complete. Our favourite part of this one is near the end: “For reasons which need not be given here, the writer has ventured to put a small trilithon at the entrance, and two rather larger ones, one at each end of the horseshoe, to make it complete. … This arrangement seems to giove a finish to Stonehenge...” In other words, the fellow has added parts to Stonehenge that he thinks would make it better! We have mentioned before, but so long ago at this point that probably any of you weren’t even born yet, that even those who profess to be the greatest admirers of Stonehenge cannot seem to resist making little improvements in their reproductions of it. It is as if you took a picture of the Mona Lisa and then thought, She could be prettier, couldn’t she? and changed her features to look more like Charlize Theron.

Anyway, Hutchison says that the model in the pictures is of plasticene, but he made another of wood and donated it to the British Museum. And, no, it is not the same one that’s at the bottom of the other article. Small differences are evident to the seasoned eye of the Stonehenge replica expert, that is to say, ourselves.

The article ends, “I should like to see a full-sized reconstruction of Stonehenge made in concrete and set up somewhere close to Salisbury to show visitors what this wonderful monument was like in prehistoric times; and I am sure such a model would attract visitors to the ancient town.” Obviously, we’re all for that!! (And, yes, we know that not everyone believes that Stonehenge was ever finished. We are not interested in having that discussion here.)

So thank you to Mr. Glastonbury for his help with Clonehenge through the years. At least one time we were ready to quit the blog but kept going because he kept sending us replicas to post. He told us just today that he knows of a top secret Stonehenge replica project to be implemented some time in August, and he will bring us the news as it happens. More fun to come!

Happy summer solstice, everyone! And of course, happy henging!

Rock and Roll and the Henge Fixation–Polystyrene Version!

Paul Archer and his “clonehenge”

It didn’t start with This is Spinal Tap. Rock and roll latched onto Stonehenge early on. Let’s face it–the bluestones even come from the Preseli Hills! The Elvis connection!!! In the movie Help, Stonehenge is in the background of one scene. And check out this terrible Stonehenge replica built for the Rolling Stones:

“A Stonehenge setting for pop group The Rolling Stones …”

Oh, LOL, as they used to say in the previous century! That thing wouldn’t get a good score on this blog. It does already have its own druid, though–good setting for Keith Richards! But it illustrates the point that Spinal Tap was an extension, not an initiation of the Stonehenge/rock music connection.

Enter Paul Archer and The Saints of British Rock. We have to admit that we are not certain who the Saints of British Rock are or where they originated–the States, Canada, or the UK. But the salient point here is that Mister Paul Archer, prop-maker to the stars, made a brilliant polystyrene (aka styrofoam) Stonehenge replica for their coming tour. The nice thing about polystyrene is that it is bound to last longer than the original! The article linked to here throws in the phrase “Affectionately called ‘clonehenge’ ” Haha! What a great pun!!!

They make the rock pun, too. What fun when you write about a Stonehenge replica for your first time! Oh, WTF, just for old time’s sake, why don’t we go there? The Saints have chosen well–rock doesn’t get any more British than Stonehenge! Harharhar…. Sigh. Not as funny as we hoped,

We are impressed with this replica. It is not a ful replica, but the parts he chose to do he did well. The stones are so well shaped thatone might be able to figure out what number stone each one is. (Yes, the stones of Stonehenge, like your days, are numbered.) Score:  7 druids! It should only be 6½, but rock and roll makes us all nostalgic.

Take note–this replica was made in Victoria British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest again. There must be Stonehenge mycelium in the ground there. Henges pop up like mushrooms!

Hello to any bicycle people who have dropped by! We knew you were here by the sound of your gears popping. And to the rest of our Gentle Readers, thanks for visiting, and happy henging!

PS: Was it just us who were disappointed when we weren’t asked to participate in the Queen’s Jubilee?? Yes?  An inexplicable oversight. They shouldn’t be surprised if some guerilla henges start to appear around the palace when they least expect it. They have been warned!

Glimpses of a Carhenge–An Odd Corner of Henging History!

“The Secret Life of Machines is an educational television series presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod, in which the two explain the inner workings and history of common household and office machinery.” So says Wikipedia and why should we bother to reword it just to sound like we’re not quoting it?

Friend of the blog Josteyn Ward [about whom we know things you would not want to know about your friends!] posted this video and its henge on the Clonehenge Facebook group along with its partner video which shows a car engine, clearly meant as a sacrifice, being carried into the henge by people clad in white, starting at about23 minutes 45 seconds in. Brilliant!

On the website, they have this: “We made carhenge for the car and engine programme. There are several permanent carhenges in the world, most famously one in the US desert. Ours only lasted two months, but it had a good site, and many people made pilgrimages to it from the main road a mile away. It is best seen in the opening shot of the car programme.”

We are amazed that we never heard of this autohenge before now! It is extremely rare for a television show to make and feature its own Stonehenge replica. The history of henging has many hidden corners. Score: 8 druids, as much for the procession and sacrifice of the internal combustion engine as for the Stonehenge replica itself!

This idea of Stonehenge as a place of human sacrifice persists, but happily it is not taken as seriously as it once was. It makes an excellent basis for jokes. Nothing tickles the funny bone like an innocent person being laid out on a stone and eviscerated before a large crowd! Possibly our friend Josteyn Ward would want to speak to this. Possibly. But we don’t actually want to know.

Until the next time friends, happy henging!

We Are Not Discussing the Rescue Home for Ducks!

Wastepaper Stonehenge

Once in a while, once in a great while, these days, we get the urge to post something on Clonehenge like we used to in the olden days. Not sure what brings it on–maybe it’s something we ate. Maybe it’s time to try fasting!

But for now here we are and the first henge we want to show you is this wastepaper henge, as posted by Philip Carr-Gomm. Apparently the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids needed some way to package their bard-ish and druidy bits (we don’t know what an ovate is, so we are just ignoring that part) and they decided to have someone make one for them. And so…

“a manufacturer was found – who was even more eccentric than the folk at OBOD HQ [!!!, ed.]. Run by an old hippie, the factory has won environmental awards, is situated in the Downs in a recycled chicken farm, and in their spare time the staff run a rescue home for ducks. And now they must have more time on their hands because they’ve built a replica of Stonehenge out of waste paper and cardboard. Anyone who gets one of the Order’s boxes can take satisfaction in knowing that it might have been made out of a Stonehenge…sort of…”

On a scale of one to ten, how difficult, nay, painful, do you think it is for us to proceed without devoting at least a paragraph to the phrase rescue home for ducks (henceforward RHFD)? And yet we soldier on! We have, of course, posted a garbagehenge in the past, and a clever, politically-motivated thing it was, set in the city of Montreal. This is in quite a different mood, built by employees of a company run by an old hippie on a recycled chicken farm (we have no idea how one recycles chickens! Harhar!) by people who run a RHFD. And, of course, it is made of materials that are being recycled. Bravo!

Score? We give it 6 druids. Lovely idea, presented modestly, not even posted by the people who built it. (And quite likely the only henge we have ever posted that was made by people who also ran a RHFD.)

We’re getting into the swing of this. We may have to post another henge before the night is out. Maybe it’s something we drank!

Does anyone know of an old hippie anywhere who might start a rescue home for henges? It may be an idea whose time has come. Remember, careless henging can result in a henge who has to be put down. Henge responsibly!