Beltany
The stone circle of Beltany ( Irish At Bhealtaine ) or Beltany Tops is located about three kilometers south of Raphoe in County Donegal in Ireland .
The name Beltany goes back to the Celtic fertility festival Beltane or Beltaine .
The stone circle has a diameter of more than 44 meters and consists of 64 preserved stones on a 1 to 1.2 meter high platform on a hill called tops . Originally the circle could have consisted of 80 stones.
The stones with an average height of 1.6 m stand close together and form a ring around the platform inside (a low burial mound). They show parallels to the megalithic complexes of Carrowmore 100 km to the southwest . Some of Carrowmore's Passage Tombs still have the characteristic stone ring that forms the boundary of the cairn . Beltany is therefore seen as a transitional form between Passage Tomb and Stone Circle. Aubrey Burl (1926–2009) assumes that Beltany is one of the first stone circles, dating from before 3000 BC. Was created.
Others place it in the Irish Bronze Age (1400-800 BC).
See also
literature
- Aubrey Burl: Prehistoric Stone Circles. Osprey Publishing, 2005 ISBN 0747806098
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the National Monuments in the Republic of Ireland . Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 , p. 64
Individual evidence
- ^ Damian Noonan: Castles & Ancient Monuments of Ireland . Aurum Press, 2001, p. 137 ISBN 1854107526
- ^ Aubrey Burl: Prehistoric Stone Circles. Osprey Publishing, 2005, p. 17
- ↑ Information board at Beltany Stone Circle. A photo of the board is on flickr.com
- ^ Aubrey Burl: Prehistoric Stone Circles. Osprey Publishing, 2005, p. 18
Web links
- Beltany at Stonepages
- Beltony Stone Circle at Askaboutireland
Coordinates: 54 ° 51 ′ 3.3 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 58.6" W.