The two circles could have been made by the same group of builders.

Absolutely stunning photos of Beltany stone circle and the other cromlechs by Ken Williams. Stone circles are an enigma... if they represent male or female stones does it mean gods or representations of the fertile nature of the earth, why are the earlier great blocking stones of longbarrows such as WKLB or Wayland Smith m/f?
Stone circles sometime replace or went alongside timber circles,( which presumably had to be marked to denote their significance) - so are all circles imitations of others - Stanton Drew following Avebury for instance, with a universal meaning of fertility..... The distinct individuality of the stones at the Rollrights and Beltany circles are formed by the local stone found and used. It blows the mind somewhat the idea of circle builders drawing a plan on the ground and then finding the stones to fit the pattern, but then did'nt the Lough Gur circle have a central post hole so that a "rope" line could denote the extent of the circle.

A chap called Jack Morris Eyton has been researching the shape & positions of stones within large circles for a while. Over on TMP he produced an 18 part series of articles based on his findings. If you're interested, you'll find them on the following link under the heading “Last 20 News/Article Submissions from JACKME”

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=JACKME

In some ways Beltany and the Rollrights are so similar and in others they are very dis-similar. On the positive side, they did once have almost complete, contiguous circles and are pretty isolated from similar type of monuments, the jagged high and low stone arrangements are also alike at first glance. On the other hand, the Rollrights had a definite 'entrance', I haven't seen or heard of a formal entrance to Beltany Tops, according to Burl the stones in the Rollrights were originally 'crudely graded' in height whereas Beltany has tall stones among lower ones dotted around the place, aren't a lot of the Rollrights broken and others replaced after being torn out of their sockets?

There is the problem of the inner cairn, Burl considers Beltany to perhaps be among the very first 'stone circles' proper, possibly a second generation development coming from the boulder circles of Carrowmore. I'd find it hard to disagree with that, plus the circles at Carrowmore are (or were) completely contiguous with no gap for entry, as Beltany possibly was, with a 'sacred' space inside. This sacred space was a raised artificial platform at Carrowmore and is also at Beltany. What that would suggest to me is that Carrowmore and Beltany belong to the same tradition or belief, that the area inside was seperated from the outside world and the community once the structure was complete. The interior was not designed for access by lowly commoners or perhaps anyone at all except the remains or relics of the ancestors. Seperated from the 'profane' world as Anthony Weir phrases it.

This seems opposite to the Rollrights which it seems was of what we would call the 'traditional' stone circle, the more mainstream Cumbrian type designed as a space where the living, not just the dead, performed rituals/danced/communicated with alien ancestors or whatever. It seems a total shift in 'use', perhaps cult leaders were eventually, over centuries elevated (or manouvered their way) to as high a status as the ancestors and this was the space where living deities were honoured at feast/festival times?

All speculation of course, but I think whatever about the similarities, the circles and the people who built them were very different and had different social/ritual structures.