View WSW of Kintraw standing stone between two kerb cairns at the head of Loch Craignish, Mid Argyll, Scotland, UK: Bronze Age winter solstice marker.
View WSW of Kintraw standing stone between two kerb cairns (A front, B to rear) at the head of Loch Craignish, Mid Argyll, Scotland, UK. Possibly an astronomical observatory marking the midwinter solstice sunset to the SW among the Paps of Jura (23 miles away) around 1800BC. When viewed from a boulder notch & platform on the steep hillside to the NE the sun would set behind Beinn Shiantaidh peak on Jura then flash into view again in the notch formed with Beinn a'Chaolais. The alignment was marked by the standing stone, & a post set into the larger cairn (A) which was excavated in 1959-60 when the post socket was found. A central burial cist was also uncovered. Before being robbed of stone, the cairn may have been high enough to form a viewing platform to the Paps of Jura over the intervening ridge. Originally there may have been four stones in the alignment.
Size: 2701px × 3779px
Location: Kintraw Cairns and Standing Stone, Loch Craignish, Kilmartin, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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