Thompson's Rock Holed Stone View all content for Thompson's Rock

Beacon Themes 'The Beacon Solar Observatory'. This holed boulder is shown in this month's 'Fortean Times' and I see it's been mentioned on this website before (I took the grid reference from Gavin Douglas's post here.) The 'observations' page has some photos of the sun shining down the hole through the stone. Perhaps it really is aligned, perhaps some prehistoric people wriggled it round until it was facing the right way. Whatever, it's a pretty curious object with that hole right through it. It surely deserves some weird folklore (Richard Cox in the FT makes a comparison with the Stone of Gronw in the Mabinogion). But being off the beaten track maybe it's been lying low for a few tens of centuries, there on the flank of mysterious Simonside.

Posted by Rhiannon 1st June 2010ce Edited 1st June 2010ce

Comments (3)
Intriguing . If the figures are correct , excepting the 312.2 etc , which are not right for that spot and the solstice , being three degrees out , the builders have got it spot on considering the slope of the hole point to a part of the sky about 600 metres above the horizon . The resulting declination is closer to the Neolithic value than present day but I still reckon it''s post medieval to Victorian with metal tools being used .	Posted by tiompan 1st June 2010ce
Not a natural hole then? And I don't know anything about solstice sunrises / sets etc but I felt a bit confused that they'd said it lines up with the summer sunset and the winter sunrise, could it do both??	Posted by Rhiannon 1st June 2010ce
Must re-read it to see what they suggest re natural or not . No pics from the opposite direction , not sure about the light/physics aspect as it would be "going uphill " ( the 1.69 degree slope ) so to speak .	Posted by tiompan 2nd June 2010ce
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