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Excavations at Arthur’s Stone, a Neolithic burial chamber overlooking the Golden Valley in Herefordshire, have revealed evidence of a second megalithic monument on the site: a possible stone circle some 65.5ft (20m) in diameter.
Dating back 5,500 years, Arthur’s Stone and its immediate surroundings were already known to have had a complex, multi-phase history encompassing a turf mound with an avenue of timbers that were later replaced in stone, a stone dolmen chamber surrounded by an oval stone bank, and a long cairn and passage (see CA 404).
This evolution has been gradually unpicked during investigations by the University of Manchester, Cardiff University, and the American Institute for Field Research, in partnership with English Heritage – and it was during the latest phase of work that a circular feature was spotted in the next field, about 70m south-west of Arthur’s Stone.
The ring was initially picked up by multispectral drone survey undertaken by SUMO Geophysics. It was first suggested that it could represent the remains of a Bronze Age barrow, but when part of the circle was excavated the team found a series of apparent sockets that would have supported upright stones, one of which had a base still in situ. Dating evidence is yet to be pinned down, but it is thought that the new find could be several centuries younger than Arthur’s Stone.
‘The stone circle is the first definite example in Herefordshire,’ Julian Thomas, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Manchester, said, adding that there is another possible example in Longtown, and that the Queen Stone near Symonds Yat may also have originally formed part of a human-made stone setting of some kind.
Investigations beyond the hedgeline to the south-east of Arthur’s Stone have uncovered further prehistoric features, including possible post- and stake-holes, highlighting the complexity of the landscape that once surrounded the monument. In this respect, Julian emphasised, it can be compared to Dorstone Hill, a site on the next hilltop along, which is home to three burnt timber halls, three long barrows, and a causewayed enclosure (CA 285). Should the two sites continue to be considered separately? ‘The open question is whether all of these structures represent a single monumental landscape, or whether the Arthur’s Stone and Dorstone Hill complexes were in some sense in competition with each other,’ Julian said.
Text: Rebecca Preedy / Photo: Adam Stanford
