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Very much enjoying these photos you have been uploading recently. The locations are something else. Looks very exotic on my screen on a cold wet January day here in Aberdeenshire :-) Wonderful stuff.
Glad you like them T.
Splendid G :)
I've never visited anything megalithic outside of the British Isles. Can I ask, when visiting a site like this do you feel/see a connection to the sites back home or does it feel a little different? It does look so familiar (the stones not the landscape) even though I've never been.
G well knows it never rains in Turra T :-)
The closest we have to the type of monument in the pics are portal dolmens which are confined to a (very roughly ) an area to the south and west of the Irish Sea , but the elements are similar if simpler enough to other funerary monuments too , containing trapezoidal chambers , passages etc but with lots of regional variation and also orientation . The problem is the lack of secure dating evidence (as opposed to dating the material culture ) that we have in comparative abundance ,and despite the huge number of monuments . With the little knowledge we have they look to be later than our portal dolmens and some much later . As the dolmen type is found throughout Europe , all the way to the Black Sea ,North Africa and as far east as Korea , it seems to be a typical architectural type that can't be explained by diffusion ,although that need not apply to some regional similarities .So I don't see a connection with blighty monuments to the same extent as , say northern French dolmens with others that might be much further away than blighty e.g. southern Spanish dolmens .
Nor Auchterhoose D .
How do you rate the appreciation and care of such places cp the UK?
Thanks George, very interesting. My knowledge is limited on these things as I don't really read much on the subject, I just like visiting sites for a stroll in the fresh air really - though I am just finishing 'The Tale of the Axe' by David Miles at the moment which I've enjoyed very much (can't compare it to other similar books as I've not read many others). Made me think about stones/prehistory in a bigger geographical sense, much like your recent posts/photos.
Great discussion. I've wondered this too, also with Les' pictures from the Netherlands.
G/F got me "Tale of the Axe" for Xmas and is now reading it herself - before I got near it :)
I doubt that I could judge the appreciation of monuments here and would be even worse further afield , but a rough guess would be pretty similar .
The monuments are often found in much wilder areas and more difficult to access than we find in blighty , higher , trackless , dense garrigue , less visitors etc , but they are well cared for despite the problems .
Was unaware of "Tale of the axe" , looks good .
And of course the jadeitite axes from Mont Bego show the continental association .
Standing stones , stone circles , dolmens ,certain rock art motifs etc. are pretty universal , contemporaneous and distant . Looks like the same response from punters in many disparate places that cannot be explained by diffusion .
What a photo! What a situation! And a mention of Auchterhoose? The OH wiz born wae Dronley mud oan her boots!
And twenty years this week since Mr MacKenzie left us there.
Dronley is jist doon the road fae me .The muds still there .
Would sometimes bang into Mr M and his whippets near Scotston .