‘Crowns of Stone’ Yield Their Secrets

11 August 2011

What may be the true purpose of a type of stone circle unique to the north east of Scotland has been revealed by a new book, Great Crowns of Stone – The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland.

Author and archaeological investigator Adam Welfare details how Bronze Age architects copied and adapted the designs of their Stone Age predecessors to make symbolic memorials for their dead.

Just like the 19th century Greek Revival that saw Edinburgh try to turn itself into the “Athens of North”, 4,000 years ago, builders in the north east were looking back another 1,000 years for their own architectural inspiration. Recumbent stone circles borrowed key design features from ancient chambered tombs, but instead of being used for burials or to host rituals, they were built to seal off sites of cremation pyres. They were commemorative monuments designed to be seen but not touched or entered.

The new book, published this August, is the culmination of over 10 years of painstaking research into the mysteries surrounding these most unusual stone circles.