Callanish
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Investigations
The Main Setting
A Ritual Landscape
Interpretations
Callanish stands a low ridge at the head of Loch Roag, a long, sheltered sea-loch on the
Atlantic coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The site looks over a watery
landscape dotted with small islands and surrounded by low hills. It is easily accessible
by boat and a natural meeting place for people from miles around. All over the shores
of the loch, within sight of the main centre, are smaller monuments—stone rings and
rows as well as solitary monoliths—which look as though they were set up by visitors
who got together to celebrate.
Callanish: View from the North
These pilgrims need not have been strictly local, for Lewis was a vital stopover on the
sea lanes from Ireland and southern Britain to the Orkneys. Imported Irish axes have
been found on the island and there was clearly an exchange of ideas as well. Callanish
is a hybrid site as well as a very complex one, and is second only to Stonehenge when it
comes to theory and speculation.
Generally, the megalithic rings that are found scattered over much of western Scotland
are similar to those found in the rest of Britain, especially the ones in the Cumbrian
Lake District. In the Western Isles, however, the rings are more varied in design and
tend to have more features—multiple, concentric rings, outliers, stone rows and centre
stones. They are much smaller and tidier than the mainland examples and more likely
to contain burials. They also tend to be found in clusters, such as the small group at
Machrie Moor on Arran. Many of these features are also found in Ireland.
Today the islands of the Outer Hebrides are thinly
populated and there are large tracts of open moorland. The
climate is rather cool, windy and wet, and the landscape is
covered with peat. When the first people arrived on the
scene, conditions were somewhat milder and much of the
land was still covered with mixed forest—mainly birch and
pine with some stands of oak and elm. Even so, conditions
were already beginning to deteriorate. Increased rainfall
coupled with poor drainage meant that much of the interior
was becoming waterlogged. The trees began to die but the
lack of oxygen prevented decomposition and a thick oozing
mat of organic material blanketed large areas. The peat was
so acidic that only the toughest scrub could grow.
Settlements, such as Eilean Domhnuill on North Uist, were
small and close to the water where there was access to a
variety of marine resources, good grazing for their livestock
and suitable soil for cultivation. Although only a few such
domestic sites have been uncovered, their presence is
marked by megalithic tombs similar to those found in the
rest of Scotland.
Investigations
Early visitors to Callanish report that the locals called the stones the Fir Bhrèige
("false men") who stood under the spell of an enchanter. What they saw was a ring of
stones around a tall monolith protruding from the peat with rows of stones running to
the east, the west and the south. The main approach was from the north and was
marked by a long, stone-lined avenue. There were the inevitable associations with the
Druids but no real work was done on the site until 1857 when Sir James Matheson
ordered it to be cleared of the five feet or so of peat that covered the site. His workmen
uncovered a small chamber tomb within the circle and a couple of fallen stones, which
have since been re-erected. Proper excavation of the site did not occur until 1980
when it was clear that it was badly in need of restoration and repair. These were
conducted over two seasons by Patrick Ashmore of Historic Scotland. The central ring
and tomb were thoroughly investigated and a number of trenches were opened up
along the stone rows and avenue.
Sketch of Callanish in 1857 by James Kerr
The Main Setting
Apparently the site was unoccupied prior to the construction of the monument,
although traces of a circular enclosure, perhaps a corral, and some raised beds on
which barley was grown. Construction began about 3000 BC with the laying out of the
central setting-the ring of thirteen stones and the central monolith.
Callanish: Aerial from the Southwest
The stones were all Lewissean gneiss, the oldest rocks in the British Isles,
distinguished by their fine, meandering lines of quartz. The central stone, at 4.75
metres, was the tallest—the rest range between 2.5 and 4 metres in height. The ring,
which measures 13.4 x 11.8 metres, is not a true circle but it is symmetrical. The
western half is an accurate semi-circle while the eastern half is flattened somewhat.
Perhaps this was done to focus attention towards the east during ceremonial activities.
The stones were set into shallow sockets that had been prepared for them and packed
with pebbles and clay for additional support.
Callanish: Plan of Excavations
Central Setting
Callanish: Centre Stone and Grave
The centre stone is actually about 1.2 metres northwest of
actual centre point, at the back of a small chamber tomb. The
latter, a small version of the stalled cairns found in northeastern Scotland and Orkney, is clearly later than the ring but
how much later is unclear. The cairn was horseshoe-shaped
and had an outer revetment wall of horizontal slabs. he burial
chamber was sub-divided into 'stalls' by upright slabs
projecting from the walls and produced some fragments of
cremated bone when it was excavated in 1857. The latest
excavations produced some potsherds, found in a layer of
greasy black earth outside the tomb. Ashmore believes that this
was the residue of burials that had been removed from the
burial chamber once the flesh had decomposed. The tomb was
apparently in use for several centuries judging from the pottery,
which includes both Grooved Ware and Beaker vessels, found
outside.
Chamber Tomb
Callanish: Avenue from the south
Running NNE from the circle is an avenue 83 metres long-two
rows of orthostats, not strictly parallel but diverging slightly
until they terminated in two higher stones set at right-angles to
the others. Recent excavations have uncovered an empty stone
socket near the north end of the west side of the avenue,
suggesting a total of (perhaps) sixteen stones on each side. The
stones of the western side of the avenue are taller than those on
the eastern side—a feature also characteristic of many Irish
double rows. A single row of four stones ran due west for 9
metres while another ran roughly ENE for 15.4 metres. In 1981,
a fallen stone was found at the end of the eastern row of stones.
West Alignment & Central Setting
The socket for the latter was also discovered and the stone has
since been re-erected, making five altogether. Running south
for a distance of 22 metres is another row of five stones, which
may have been intended as the eastern side of another avenue.
If that was the case, the builders never got further than erecting
a single stone on what would have been the western side.
West Alignment
Overall view from the South
South Alignment & Central Setting
A Ritual Landscape
View from Cnoc Fhillibhir Bheag to Callanish with Cnoc Ceann a Ghàrraidh in the middle distance.
Callanish is the largest of a number of contemporary
monuments around the shores of the loch. Cnoc Ceann a
Ghàrraidh is an oval ring (ca. 22 x 19 metres) consisting of five
standing and three fallen stones located about a half a mile
away from the main site. A rough cairn and pebble-lined
sockets for at least five posts were found inside it. Just uphill is
Cnoc Fhillibhir Bheag, where eight stones were found in the
circuit of a slightly smaller ring (ca. 13 metres across) and
another four in the centre. Several fallen stones were
discovered in the course of excavations. Less than a mile north
Cnoc Ceann a Ghàrraidh
of Callanish is a fallen ring of eleven stones known as Na
Dromannan while two miles to the south is the small ring of
Ceann Thulabhaig, which also contained a cairn. In addition,
there are several stone rows and individual standing stones
within a mile or two. That these peripheral sites were
associated with Callanish proper seems obvious but the nature
of their relationship is unclear.
Map of the Callanish Region
Ceann Thulabhaig
Interpretations
Astronomers have had a field day interpreting Callanish. It has been suggested that
the north avenue was directed toward the rising of Capella in about 1800 BC; that the
western row was aligned with the sunset on the equinoxes; and that the eastern row
pointed towards the Pleiades (in 1750 BC) or to the rising of Altair (in 1760 BC).
However, it must be pointed out that the avenue also marks the natural approach to
the site from the shore and is far too broad to be used as a sightline. The eastern row is
not especially straight and it is difficult to imagine it being much use to prehistoric
astronomers. In any case, Altair is so faint when it rises that it would have been barely
visible. Gerald Hawkins emphasised the importance of the lunar cycle and suggested
that the southern row was oriented towards the line of hills, Cailleach na mòitich,
where the moon skipped along the horizon every 18 or 19 years. In the northern
hemisphere, this phenomenon only occurs at this particular latitude (58 º). In short,
while we have convincing cases for solar and lunar events, the idea that the site was a
prehistoric observatory is not particularly convincing.
The Classical historian, Diodorus Siculus, may have been describing Callanish when
he wrote,
This island...is situated North and is inhabited by the
Hyperboreans... And there is also on the island both a magnificent
sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned
with many votive offerings and spherical in shape.... They say that
the Moon, as viewed from this island, appears to be but a little
distance from the Earth and to have upon it prominences like those
of the Earth, which are visible to the eye. The account is also given
that the God visits the island every nineteen years, the period in
which the return of the stars to the same place in the heavens is
accomplished.
At some time around the middle of the second millennium BC, the site was abandoned
and apparently vandalized by the Bronze Age farmers who now populated the district.
To them, the site was evidently still a place of great power