Contributed by Bernie Bell

The Orkney News  previously featured  a piece by Duncan Lunan (the man himself) about Sighthill Stone Circle, past and present………….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/08/15/ancient-astronomy-and-the-sighthill-stone-circle/ .  The most recent post on Kenny Brophy’s Urban Pre-historian blog, was an update on the progress of the ‘new’ stone circle.  On reading this, I thought  it would be good to keep the interest alive, and asked Kenny would it be OK to re-post his blog on TON – Kenny – he said yes! So, here it is folks, with lots of pictures!

Great crown of stone

By Kenny Brophy

Exactly a year ago, 20th March 2019. the new Sighthill stone circle was officially revealed to the media. Designed, as was the first iteration, by Duncan Lunan, this astronomically aligned stone circle has been constructed as a permanent and unique resource within the emerging new Sighthill just to the north-east of Glasgow city centre.

At the time when this new megalith began to emerge, it sat on a raised island amidst a giant muddy building site. Sighthill itself was yet to be reborn, the old variant having been more or less completely bulldozed and remediated as part of a £250 million redevelopment. The standing stones stood resplendent like teeth, their concrete foundations exposed like white gums. At the time they sat in a noisy landscape of construction, with the closest neighbour being a Mercedes car dealership, a Ballardian crash of epic proportions.

A year on, residential Sighthill is now growing slowly, although the stone circle remains (just) in glorious isolation. It still sits in a brownscape of mud amidst machines of construction, but it is slowly visually and metaphorically being lost in an urban skyline. Yet even now, driving west along the M8 into the city centre, the Sighthill’s second stone circle is a fantastic site / sight, emerging as it does on the horizon off to the left. A similar and wonderful view can be gained by the pedestrian by standing on Baird Street bridge over the motorway.

The stone circle is surely Glasgow’s Angel of the North, a great crown of stone on the horizon.

This photo essay (my rather grand description of what is basically a series of photographs) documents the time I was privileged to spend in and around the stone circle on 20^th March 2019 thanks to a kind invitation from Duncan.

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