If you’ve ever heard anything about a “Welsh Stonehenge,” a site related to the famous megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in England, you may be interested in learning the history of Waun Mawn. Waun Mawn, a site in western Wales, contains remnants of a dismantled stone circle with a curious story.
What is Welsh Stonehenge, and what does a site in western Wales called Waun Mawn have to do with Stonehenge in England? The Waun Mawn site, its name Welsh for “Peat Moor,” is located in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. It contains traces of a stone circle, considered the third largest in Britain. Though most of the previous megaliths it contained have long since been removed, it turns out that this removal (more like relocation) is why the site has received so much attention.
For one thing, the diameter of the stone circle is 360 feet (110m), which measures the same as that of the ditch enclosing Stonehenge. Secondly, several of the upright stones of Stonehenge are the same type of rock found in those stones remaining at Waun Mawn. Thirdly, perhaps the most interesting hint of connection is that one of Stonehenge’s bluestones has a uniquely shaped base. This shape matches one of the imprints left behind at Waun Mawn, where a stone had once stood before ancient people removed it. Researchers believe this suggests the same bluestone at Stonehenge began as part of the stone circle in the Preseli Hills—the Welsh Stonehenge.
This post is about Waun Mawn, the site known as the Welsh Stonehenge, and its relationship to Stonehenge in England.
Welsh Stonehenge
Waun Mawn, the remains of a stone circle constructed in 3,400 BC in western Wales, is sometimes called the Welsh Stonehenge. It may share a fascinating history with Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.
Is Stonehenge in Wales?
No, Stonehenge isn’t located in Wales. Stonehenge, the famous prehistoric monument, is located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. In 1986, this historic location was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. (The abbreviation stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.) That designation means the site has been given legal protection for having scientific, cultural, and historic significance.
However, people sometimes refer to the Maun Wawn stone circle in the Preseli Hills in Wales as the Welsh Stonehenge. While it hasn’t been named a World Heritage Site, it may have been the original Stonehenge. Evidence shows that these individual megaliths were later painstakingly moved to Salisbury Plain.
When was Stonehenge built?
Stonehenge in England was built in six stages. Neolithic people began constructing it around 3,000 BC and finished near 1,520 BC. They first made a circular enclosure with a ditch and bank. Next, they created 56 pits called the Aubrey Holes (so named after their discoverer). An archaeological dig revealed that most of these pits contained human cremation burials. Next, builders added the bluestones and the altar stone.
They added the sarsen stones in the second stage, beginning about 2,640 BC. In the third stage, between 2470 and 2280 BC, Stonehenge’s constructors made the side ditches and banks. Lastly, in the fourth through sixth stages, the ancient people arranged the bluestones to form a circle and oval. They then dug a ring of pits outside the sarsen circle and dug another, final ring of pits called the Y Holes.
A Welsh Stonehenge, the stone circle remains at Maun Wawn, was built in 3,400 BC—400 years before the construction of Stonehenge in England began.
How did the bluestones get from Wales to Stonehenge?
The bluestones are an interesting piece of Stonehenge history all by themselves. First, here’s a bit about the type of stones the Neolithic farmers had to move 150 miles. The name “bluestones” has been given to the smaller stones that make up Stonehenge or to any stone that is not a sarsen stone. They have a bluish color when they’re freshly broken or wet. The bluestones are actually a collection of different types of stones. They’re made of spotted dolerite, calcareous ash, two types of rhyolite, and even thirteen sandstones. In contrast, the sarsen stones are large silicified sandstone blocks.
Archaeologists believe that at least five bluestones came from a quarry at Carn Goedog, a rock formation on the northern side of the Preseli Hills. Other bluestones likely came from Craig Rhos-y-Felin. Knowing where the stones came from is important because the rocks that occurred in these two Welsh stone outcrops had a naturally vertical pillar shape. This shape made them easier to transport despite their size.
The Neolithic people living in Wales chiseled the stone pillars away from the rock formation. Then, they placed a single rock on a platform. They lowered the platform, setting the stone on a wooden sledge. The theory is that people then dragged the sledge to Waun Mawn and placed the monolith. They repeated this with each stone until they constructed the Welsh Stonehenge. Some researchers believe that when the people living at Preseli later migrated, they moved their entire monument to Salisbury, where it remains today.
Where did Stonehenge originally come from?
Part of what makes Stonehenge a unique Neolithic site is that the ancients transported its massive building materials over such great distances. The short answer to the question is that the materials of Stonehenge came from different places: Wales, England, and Scotland. However, historians believe the Neolithic structure was first assembled at Waun Mawn in Wales and moved to England about 400 years later.
Here’s a breakdown of where the stones came from. Some of the smaller stones, various types of rocks referred to as “bluestones,” came from quarries in the Preseli Hills in Wales. The bluestones are each about 8 feet tall and weigh about 4 tons.
The sarsen stones, however, were brought from a site in England near Marlborough, about 15 miles north of Salisbury Plain. These stones are each around 6 – 7 meters high. Each one weighs about 20 tons.
Recently, researchers found that the altar stone, which lies in the monument’s center, was brought to England from northeast Scotland. One fact that helped lead to this discovery is that the stone’s makeup doesn’t match the geology of Wales’ sandstone. The stone is about 2 meters tall if upright and weighs about 6 tons.
What is the Scottish version of the Stonehenge?
The Scottish version of Stonehenge is the Callanish (“Calanais” in Gaelic) Standing Stones. The Callanish Stones located on the Isle of Lewis were erected about 3,000 BC. The rocks are some of Britain’s oldest and are classified as Lewisian Gneiss. This type of rock dates to 1.7–3.0 billion years old! Like Waun Mawn, the Welsh Stonehenge, and the famous Stonehenge in England, no one knows why ancient people built Callanish. However, historians believe its creators may have constructed it as a type of calendar or astronomical observatory. The positions of the stones align with the paths of the sun and moon during different times of the year.
Wuan Mawn, the Welsh Stonehenge
Only four monoliths remain at the Wuan Mawn site in the present day. However, an excavation in 2018 showed depressions where the additional stones that made up the circle would have stood. Initially, there were as many as 30 – 50 stones.
Was Stonehenge moved? There’s strong evidence it was. During Neolithic times, the area surrounding Wuan Mawn in Wales had a large population. However, around 3,000 BC, it seems that everyone packed up and moved. They relocated not only their villages but also their megalithic circle! After dragging the stones 150 miles to Salisbury Plain, they created a new stone circle that is the famous Stonehenge today.
Analysis of people buried at Stonehenge shows that they came from a western part of the island—likely Wales. While archaeologists examined the remains from 60 graves, hundreds more remain with untold stories of their origins.
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This post was about Waun Mawn, the site known as the Welsh Stonehenge, and its relationship to Stonehenge in England.
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