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 Head To Head The Modern Antiquarian Ballynoe Forum | Start a topic | Search |
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| The bump to the left of the circle in the photo is just a dump of field stones. Nothing else is visible from the ground: overhead views can be deceptive. I'll take the opportunity to summarize my thoughts on Ballynoe: The only alignment seems to be to the Mountains of Mourne to the South, down between which the setting sun seems to slide half-way between Autumn equinox and Winter solstice. As already quoted by CianMacLiam, the long mound obliterated two short-lived cairns built after the circle was constructed, in what Aubrey Burl describes as "prehistoric bigotry and vandalism [which] ruined this magnificent monument." Three pairs of stones stand just outside the circle at varying distances, the small pair at the W side forming a kind of entrance-portal 2.1 metres wide. Many of the stones in this circle were originally (and some strill are)shoulder to shoulder, as at Lough Gur and Castleruddery, at Swinside in Cumbria, and La Menec in Brittany. The purpose of the several outliers remains enigmatic. They seem significant and semi-random at the same time. Ballynoe is more or less half-way - a kind of Geomantic Centre - on the E-W line between Swinside in NW England and a point just above Sligo town at 54° 17' North (i.e. N of Carrowmore, but) which is surrounded by prehistoric tombs and circles of various kinds. This line also crosses the Long Cairn of Ballafayle, just North of the significant summit of Snæfell on the Isle of Man. But Swinside has no view to the W, and Ballynoe has no view to the E. Nor are Ballynoe's two axial stones are exactly East-West, suggesting that Ballynoe is a sort of 'crazy circle' (nothing quite lines up, everything is slightly askew) - maybe a 'decoy'....or a 'deliberate mistake' of some sort.....? Nobody seems to go and see the fine quartz outlier (?) or independent stone on the other side of the road to the circle. It's pretty visible, too. Reply | with quote | Posted by weirwolf 10th January 2006ce 17:54 In reply to: Lumps and Bumps.. (CianMcLiam) |
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