What a coincidence! I was going to post here, but now I can reply, as it is about this very thing!!

I managed my second visit to Cumbria in the Easter break today (dragging my poor mother along who is up for a visit!) and we managed to "do" the Druid's Circle near Ulverston, Sunkenkirk (everyone was right, Sunkenkirk is now officially my favourite stone circle) Blakeley Raise, Castlerigg and Mayburgh Henge.

Whilst at a horrendously busy Castlerigg (complete with random wilting tulips abandoned within the circle and monstrous children climbing all over the stones and shouting at the top of their voices) a guide arrived with a few walkers and proceeded to hold forth about the circle. Leaning against a stone and just "being", I couldn't help but overhear what he was saying. Nothing particularly new until he started talking about this recent theory that stone circles might have been painted white because of analyses of the soil in various places (now I reckon he had read the afforementioned article.)

This was the first I had heard of the stones being painted white, though I had read about gypsum being put inside circles and cairns and the like, and I wanted to know what people here thought about it. Personally, although I can imagine the gypsum being spread inside the circle for one reason or another, I couldn't imagine the stones themselves being painted white. It just seemd such an alien idea. Of course castles, churches and cathedrals would have been painted, and unlike the natural stone they are today, but stone circles?

BeakerUK

Greetings Fitz, Vicster, BeakerUK,
I was interested in the white "painted" stones idea, and was just wondering what you thought about why it would be washed white.
It crossed my mind that not only would the circle be visible from afar in daylight, but perhaps more importantly, it would shine in moonlight, thus imitating the mysterious Moon herself.
I can't help feeling that the white chalklands of the south of England were important for similar reasons, the white chalk giving up its treasure of flint, and thus an assumption that the similar looking Moon was the God(ess) of such gifts.
Regards,
TE.

What woud happen to the rock art?

questions, questions.... has anyone mentioned Silbury?

Its a nice thought to think of all those proud monuments standing tall, white, with either a white wash or a thicker mix of plaster. All monuments are located where they are for a reason, but i would imagine that if any were painted or washed white, those would be perhaps the special ones that could be seen from a great distance. White is a colour that does stand out, we know of certain designs cut into hillsides for instance, so as to be seen from a long way off. I would imagine that in the correct light, the white would reflect the light, and would perhaps make a really impressive sight.
Then again perhaps they did something along the same lines as the pyramids, the plaster or white wash could have been applied white or mixed with another colour, then the stones coated. The stones once covered could have been used for telling a story, or covering them with some form of writing?..
Of course we all know that monuments will have been re-used over and over through time.

anyway...who knows..nobody!!!

This article is now online at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/
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