Machrie Moor Ritual Complex, Arran, Scotland

October 5, 2015

It was a long quiet walk to the secluded site out on the moor, past a large burial cairn, a massive circle, and standing stones. I had the entire place to myself for hours.

An overview of the scope of this amazing complex.

This massive stone at the center of the circle, whether by accident or design, acted like a sundial throughout the morning, its long shadow touching the smaller stones around the perimeter in the low autumn sun as the hours passed...

Local residents have from time to time taken it upon themselves to use the stones for their own purposes. In this case, to carve them into future millstones. These ones didn’t pan out and were left in place. Other standing stones that either offended christian sensibilities or were just inconvenient to farmers were often removed, “repurposed”, deliberately destroyed, and in at least one case I read of, blown up with dynamite.

It’s impossible to do these justice with a photo. The stones are much taller than you would imagine in life, and tower over you. Putting aside the sheer engineering marvel they are for a Stone Age culture and the fact that they are still standing today, the stones themselves just have an uncanny air about them, giving the most inexplicable, surreal impression when you stand beside them and look up at the sky, the clouds moving visibly overhead, that you are standing beside the only solid, fixed thing on earth, and everything around you is spinning. It’s magic.

And, yes, those are my initials, but no, I did not carve them into this stone! Please, please don’t deface monuments or build cairns that are not actual trail markers. History will thank you.

It’s impossible for us to know exactly how ancient people used these sites. Why did such a large complex need so many different circles? Did each serve a different function at a different time of year? Of day? Or did each serve a different tribe or clan at a large gathering or festival, kind of like different stages at a music festival, where each clan and their religious leader/chief could go off and celebrate in their own way in their own space? And, of course, we only have a very vague idea of how the circles actually function and what sorts of rituals might have taken place there. But in a place like this, it’s impossible not to let your imagination go.