Field Visit
NB 222 356 On the S face of Beinne na Bige is a gently sloping terrace at c75m OD. On it there are the remains of a stone circle Callanish Xl (DES 1976, 58; DES 1995, 110; DES 2002, 123–124). The circle, c51m in diameter almost fills the terrace. There is evidence of eight standing stones but the circle may have consisted of at least 13 standing stones originally.
From the terrace and above, almost all the 40+ Callanish standing stone sites are visible below the ‘sacred’ horizon of the Sleeping Beauty and Clisham range of hills. The Airigh Mhaoldó Nuich site XVl monolith (now fallen) marks the direction of site Vlll where the S extreme moon skims along a different skyline (DES 1976, 57; 1985, 8; 1987, 61; 1988, 32; 1989, 72; 1989, 109; 1990, 49).
The basic ground plan of the Callanish circles is such that seen from a backsight position (D) to the NW of a circle, the circle stones frame Sleeping Beauty and the S extreme moonrise appeared to take place within the circle.
Seen from a backsight position (A) to the NE of the circle some four hours later, when the S extreme moon briefly appeared in the deep valley of Glen Langadale, a person (either at the circle centre (B) or beyond it) (C) would have been silhouetted against the moon : ‘a man in the moon’. These two backsight positions (D and A) were sometimes marked with stones, eg at Callanish lll (Callanish Stones, Moon and Sacred Landscape 1994 Ron and Margaret Curtis, p8–9, p12–13).
This basic ground plan and use of stone circles was not possible at site Xl due to the steep rising ground to the N of the terrace and less steep ground to the S of the terrace. From a position even higher on the hill, all the complete circle of site Xl is seen to extend from below Sleeping Beauty’s feet on the left to Glen Langadale on the right: ie the complete
path of the S extreme moon occurs above the circle of site Xl.
Thus backsight positions for the moonrise and moonset are combined with a view to due S.
University of Glasgow Department of Geography published in 1978 Callanish: A map of the Standing stones and Circles at Callanish, Isle of Lewis, with a detailed plan of each site. It had a number of errors. The survey was undertaken in 1974. It was the first published record of site Xl. It shows the erect stone and five stones which have fallen from the steep
slope, forming an apparent alignment. Ponting and Curtis (DES 1976, 58) realised that the five stones were natural, and that other features existed on the plateau on the edge of a large circle. It was many years before M and R Curtis fully understood how the stone circle was modified from a
general ground plan and how it ‘worked’. M Curtis found the circle and probed the whole area in the 1970s. R and M Curtis finally ‘solved’ Callanish Xl in 2006.
MR Curtis and Ron Curtis
(Source: DES)
