Beltany Stone Circle Facts Checked

Beltany is a Bronze Age stone circle just south of Raphoe town in County Donegal, Ireland. It dates from circa 2100-700 BC. There is evidence that it may also have been the sacred site of Neolithic monuments, possibly early passage tombs.

megaliths, tombs, dolmens, passage-tombs, petroglyphs, rock scribings, rock art, standing-stones, prehistoric, wedge-tombs, portal-tombs, sweathouses, court-tombs, stone circles, megalithes irlandais

La plupart des cercles de pierres ... et en Bretagne - et datent généralement de la fin du néolithique et du début de l'âge du bronze, une grande partie ayant été élevées à partir de 3000 av....

En archéologie, le terme cercle de pierres désigne un type de monument mégalithique préhistorique (cercle de pierres levées, henge, cromlech).

L’étape suivante des travaux survient à la fin du -IIIe millénaire, alors que partout ailleurs en Europe, on ne construit plus de monuments mégalithiques depuis longtemps : toutes les pierres bleues des cercles précédents sont d’abord retirées et mises à l’écart, laissant le terrain libre pour une nouvelle construction. On voit alors s’ériger sur le site un complexe mégalithique exceptionnel, de 75 monolithes à l’origine, sur lesquels se concentrent encore aujourd’hui tous les regards des visiteurs.

Raphoe, Co. Donegal To add to the distinctiveness of this stone circle, a horrific-looking Iron Age stone head was found near the monument, perhaps indicating that the site had a ritual use for many centuries after its construction.

Whether it started out as a Neolithic ... have been found in the vicinity of the monument, such as Neolithic polished stone axes, and the so-called Beltany Stone Head....

Locals claimed that the raised earth actually covered graves, where decayed bones were previously found. It was in the surrounding area of Beltany that the Beltany Stone Head was discovered, which is estimated to date back to the Iron Age.

The discovery of a sculpted stone head dating to centuries after the construction of the circle suggests that this monument remained a place of ceremonial activity for hundreds of years after it was first built. Beltany is located just to the south of Raphoe, a town in County Donegal.

A carved stone known as ‘The Beltany Stone Head’ was found here and dates from anywhere between 400 BC and 400 AD although the stone circle is much older. It is now kept as a prized artifact in the National History Museum of Ireland. The stone head sculpture probably depicts a god associated with the stone circle.

A cairn or burial chamber once stood in the center of this circle, leading archaeologists to question if these stones were never a stone circle, but originally built as the kerbstones of a massive burial cairn. The name Beltany is a derivation of the Irish word Bealtaine (pronounced beh-yowl-thin-eh).

It's a site that has been disturbed, by quarrying for stone and earth in more recent centuries, and some archaeologists suggest that the stones of Beltany stone circle were originally the kerb stones for a large cairn.