A stonemason speaks:

If you're into stone - and there can be no doubt that the Romans were - then you appreciate stonework, in whatever form it takes. The location of Roman remains near to Megaliths can lend support to the concept that they drew comfort from such places. Whether it was because their native conscripts worshipped there or just that they appreciated the groovy sculpture nearby is completely open.

You see similar situations where stone fieldwalls run through monument sites (such as at Kirkhaugh). The wallers could have used the ancient stones but instead left them where they were and put their modern structures over the top. A couple of standing stones at the bottom of a wall - as is seen in Scotland often - certainly saves a lot of work. It's comparatively rare in the Pennines.

I doubt any of us would like to acknowledge that the Romans helped preserve some of our native places but that's the opinion I am forming. It seems as though it was the later 'Puritan' roadbuilders et al. who did the main damage. Which is continuing to this day as my recent accounts have shown.

I've been stuck in a tent with A. Thom's Megalithic Sites - I'm learning new stuff that I'd not spotted before - like his surveys of stone rows and their lunar alignments. The notch in Long Meg is for the sun !

Etc.

There seems to be one fact that most of us are overlooking Re: the Romans/Romano Britains. When they first arrived, and later invaded Britain, they were 'Pagans'thenmselves for the most part.
I've noticed in the TMA book that Copey consistently gets it wrong RE: Roman practices and sacred sites. In one instance (i forget which) he bemoans a road bisecting several 'sacred' sites perched upon hilltops....well of coarse they would, cos' that's how Romans built their roads, siting from hill to hill, and using a basic surveying device called a Groma (kinda like a horizontal cross of wood with plumb lines hanging from each of the arms) for the sections they couldn't see directly. I'm not sure I've come across any evidence for them 'decomissioning' sacred sites, rather, they seemed to want to 'over-awe' the populous with their technical abilities. Hence the amount of roads/forts/mansio's etc... near to, or bisecting former, out of use 'sacred' sites. Personally, i don't view the Romano Britains in the same hateful way most peeps here do, I'm consistently impressed by there engineering skills, and abilities to confront problems head on. Anyhow, as ever, it's just an opinion, but i do feel Cope gets it sooo wrong Re: the Romans and the subjigation of Britain. We were just a useful tool to 'the empire' as far as mineral extraction and good farmland goes.