10 July 2006 Colin Richards & his team were very friendly. He gave us a guided tour of the site, which was fascinating, tho evidence for a couple of the theories of use seemed a little ‘thin’ to us. Arrows indicate possible circle stones. (Pano made using Autostitch cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html)
10 July 2006 Excavations were coming to a close and the team were reseeding the ground. The spoil heap has been removed/replaced – arrows indicate likely circle stones. (Pano made using Autostitch cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html)
Taken 6th August 2004: As far as I can gather this is the alleged quarry where the stones for Na Dromannan, and possibly some of the other sites were sourced. It’s just to the west of Na Dromannan.
Louise is in the photo for scale.
Taken 6th August 2005: One of the southerly stones, with Louise (5ft 6) providing an indication of scale. Behind Lou’s head is the village of Callanish.
Taken 6th August 2005: Looking approximately south west across the site.
The stone that I interpret as the most south easterly can be seen to the left of the frame. In the distance to the right some of the houses of Callanish village are visible.
Note the weathering on some of the stones indicating the modern ground level prior to excavation.
Taken 6th August 2005: The stone at (what I think is) the south eastern edge of the site, looking approximately south west towards Loch Ceann Hulabhig.
The big pile of peat is spoil from the Manchester University archaeological dig.
Taken 6th August 2005: There was no way I was going to make these photos stitch together in a tidy way, so I decided to make it really obvious where the joins are. This way I’m not passing off a distorted image as the real thing.
The photos were taken from the top of the spoil heap to the south of the site. The village of Callanish is just about visible under the red line on the far left (above the green wheelbarrow).
It was lost to layers of peat over thousands of years with the ancient site hidden from view.
More info :
Excavations at Callanish X last year which wrongly claimed this site to be a newly discovered stone circle have produced a unsightly spoil heap on the site. The position of the spoil heap is as such that it obscures the view observers would have of the valley, from the circle, where the moon re-appears during regleam thus denying the purpose of the circle. It is hoped that pressure can be brought on the relevant people to remove the spoil heap from the site.
Archaeologists from the University of Manchester have excavated a new stone circle in Callanish, Lewis, that is already widely acknowledged as being second only to Stonehenge. Although a destroyed circle was reported as far back as 1928, a team of eight archaeologists only recently excavated the site and have already uncovered 12 new stones. The stone circle, which is thought to be more than 3,000 years old — older than Stonehenge — has been discovered in close proximity to the four other existing stone circles at the famous standing stones of Callanish.
The new circle, called Na Dromannan (’The Ridges’), is around 30 metres in diameter — larger than the existing ones — and is situated on the crofters’ common grazings. It includes a regular outer circle and various stones irregularly placed in an inner ring. Each stone measures between 2.5 to four metres long and is made of Lewissian gneiss — a metamorphic rock containing feldspar, quartz and mica, which give it its sheen. The archaeologists excavating the site have been particularly intrigued by one of the stones exposed, which is covered by a complete layer of quartz.
The stones are of particular interest because of their unusual construction. Instead of being bedded in earth, they are situated on a rocky outcrop and were originally propped up by stones encircling their bases. As such, they were less stable and were found lying in the positions they fell in — some of them broken.
The team of Manchester undergraduate and postgraduate archaeology students on Lewis are being led by Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University, Dr Colin Richards, who has been working on a project for the last two years on the construction of stone circles in North West Britain, including Orkney and Arran. Dr Richards stressed that the discovery of the ancient stone circle was very exciting, particularly because the circle was built on the site of a quarry from which the stones probably came, and where the team has found a large monolith. Although archaeologists have geologically located the mountains which the stones to build Stonehenge would have come from, no evidence of the quarry has ever been found.
Dr Richards said: “We have uncovered 12 stones already. Some are rectangular and thick and some are smaller, thin stones. When we started taking the peat off, we realised how big these stones were. Some are up to four metres long.” Dr Richards acknowledged that a ‘destroyed circle’ was recorded in 1928 by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
“It was long thought that there may be a further stone circle on the site but, until now, it has lain undiscovered, buried in the peat,” he said. “When I came here last year, I could see the ends of stones poking up above the peat. We came up here again in late July and did two weeks. I then came up about a week ago. This is the result of around three weeks’ work. People have always assumed that the stone circles were built for a purpose, but I wondered whether these things were actually considered greatly. It could have just been the case of gathering people together socially to move the stones.”
Dr Richards added: “Why they chose this area and not somewhere else is very interesting. The site may have been special because the stones were sacred. I would date them around 3000BC.” He continued: “This site is kind of nice because you see sites like the main circle and it’s very manufactured and precise. This is good because it shows what happens when things go wrong. Because the stones are irregular, we don’t know how many we expect to find. It is very difficult to say, but perhaps 16 or 17 in the outer circle.”
The archaeologists are planning to leave Lewis on Saturday. The uncovered stones will be covered with plastic, until the team return next year to continue work at the site.
Visited 3rd and 6th August 2004: Lou and I visited Na Dromannan on two occasions, partly because I left the camera in the car on the first visit, but also because we were bowled over by the stones and their location.
It’s such a peaceful spot up on the hill overlooking the other big Callanish sites (most clearly Calanais itself). We took the opportunity to sit in quiet contemplation (in a Swarth Fell stylee). You’ve got to make this little pilgrimage if you’re able!
This route is not very exact, so use it as an aide rather than relying on it. I’ve based it on memory and some photos that I took. I wouldn’t recommend the walk for anyone with limited mobility. Pushchairs or wheelchairs are out of the question because of the frequently changing levels of peat. Good footwear with ankle support is advisable, and if it’s been raining be ready to get wet feet.
Starting from the A858, park in the lay-by nearest to Cnoc Fillibhear Bheag. Cross the road and follow it, heading away from Calanais, until you are past the cottages on your left (I think you may cross over a cattle grid, but I’m not 100% sure). Here there’s a gate taking you into a small paddock on the other of which is another gate. From this point on you’re in open countryside.
Keeping to the east of the little hill behind the cottages you should find a peat cutters track. This track starts off being well defined, but very uneven, leading off to the north-east. You can follow the path for about half a mile before it becomes almost impossible to distinguish from the heather and peat. At this point you should change course and head north towards high ground. You should have the lake off to your right at the point when you change course.
This is where the going get tougher. You’ll find yourself going from one heather covered island of peat to another. The ‘valleys’ between each island can get very wet very quickly if it rains. Wherever possible keep on the high ground. The first ‘bump’ to aim for has a couple of distinctive boulders on the summit which make it quite distinctive. Once you’re on the top of that you can potentially see the bump that Na Dromannan sits on. We were lucky because the spoil heaps from the archaeological dig made for an excellent target, but once they’re gone it could be tricky finding the site without a GPS or some top notch map reading.
Na Dromannan consists of eleven large stones, which probably represent a fallen stone circle. Several of the stones are 3 metres in length and over a metre in breadth.
A nearby rock face is probably the quarry that was used as a source for the stones for this site, and possibly the other Calanais monuments. An old theory was that the stones at Na Dromannan were never erected, but represented the remnants on building work on the other sites.
Apparently the site is also known as Druim nan Eum, but only in error. The exact nature of this error isn’t clear, and my Gaelic isn’t really good enough to spot it.
An article by Dr Colin Richards about the University of Manchester excavation of Na Dromannan in 2002 and 2003. It includes four photos of the site taken during excavataion.
