Calanais Standing Stones

The name

People

• 

  James Matheson

  Proprietor of Lewis under whose orders the covering peat was cleared in 1857

• J

  John Morisone

  Lewis native who, around 1680, gave the first written reference to the stones

• M

  Martin Martin

  Visited c. 1695 and recorded the local tradition of the site as a place of worship

• A

  Alexander Thom and Gerald Hawkins

  Suggested the stones functioned as a prehistoric lunar observatory (a contested interpretation)

Cultural influences

• The stones are all of the local Lewisian gneiss, drawn from the immediate geology of the ridge.

• Calanais I is the central site within a wider landscape of prehistoric monuments — at least three other stone circles plus arcs, alignments and single stones — collectively the Calanais complex, marking sustained ceremonial use of the area.

Connections

• C

  Callanish II (Cnoc Ceann a' Ghàraidh)

  Nearby stone circle in the Calanais complex, about a kilometre south-east; some 2.5 times the area of the main ring

• 

  Callanish III (Cnoc Filibhir Bheag)

  Nearby stone circle in the complex, just over a kilometre south-east of the main stones

• U

  Urras nan Tursachan (The Standing Stones Trust)

  Local charitable trust that operates the Calanais Visitor Centre

• 

  Historic Environment Scotland

  Manages and conserves the scheduled monument and surrounding archaeological landscape

Discovery & excavation

In culture

• The stones have inspired wide popular culture. Ultravox used an image of them on the cover of the album 'Lament' (1984); Jon Mark released 'The Standing Stones of Callanish' (1988); they appear on the cover of Julian Cope's 'Jehovahkill' (1992). The Dutch band Callenish Circle took their name from the monument.

• On screen, Pixar's 'Brave' (2012) features stone circles inspired by Callanish, and the TV series 'Outlander' (2014) uses the stones as the model for the fictional time-travel circle Craigh na Dun. The stones also appear in novels and on Bank of Scotland debit cards.

• Sculptor Gerald Laing created 'Callanish' (1974) for the University of Strathclyde — sixteen upright steel girders echoing the stones, popularly known as 'Steelhenge'.

What to look for

• The central monolith — a roughly ship's-rudder-shaped stone about 4.8 metres high, standing just west of the true centre of the ring and probably weighing around seven tonnes.

• The ring of thirteen stones (about 11.4 metres diameter, flattened on its east side) with five stone rows radiating from it, including the long northern avenue of two near-parallel rows running about 83 metres north-northeast.

• The small chambered tomb squeezed between the central monolith and the eastern stones of the circle, built later than the ring.

• The wider Calanais complex visible across the moorland around Loch Roag — other circles, arcs, alignments and single stones, many visible from the main site.

Standing there

• The stones stand on a low ridge above the waters of Loch Roag, with the hills of Great Bernera as a backdrop, so the setting is one of wide Hebridean sky, open moorland and water on the exposed west coast of Lewis — wind, distant sea and birdsong are the ambient sound.
• Up close the monoliths are tall slabs of weathered Lewisian gneiss, among the oldest rock in the world: the surfaces are banded grey, silvery and streaked, rough and lichen-crusted to the touch, with the tallest central monolith rising well above head height at the heart of the cross-shaped setting.
• Walking in, you pass between rows of standing stones that funnel toward the central circle, so the experience is processional — the avenue and radiating alignments channel your movement and sightlines through the monument rather than letting you simply stand outside it.
• In the Neolithic, around 2750 BC, gathering here meant the same vast open horizon used as a backdrop for the moon and sun: the site sat within a wider complex of circles and alignments visible across the landscape, and ceremonies would have unfolded under the full sweep of the Hebridean sky against Loch Roag and the hills.
• At its lowest southern rising the moon would have skimmed along the far hills and, seen from the stones, appeared to set into and rise again from the landscape — a rare lunar spectacle the ridge-top siting seems chosen to frame, which would have drawn watchers to the circle at particular times of year.