Dumfries and Galloway, Friday, 28th October, 2022…
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‘Bill Diamond’s Bridge’
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Otherwise, ‘Glenquicken’ described by Aubrey Burl
as the finest of all centre-stone circles.
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Which today, unfortunately, looks
a little less than fine because
of the encroaching reeds!
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This is usually a sign that whatever
magnetism the circle once still held
has now all but dissipated.
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Twenty-nine stones arranged in a circle
around a central ‘giant’.
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A circle designed to plot the phases
of the moon, then…
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A moon circle!
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The twenty-ninth stone
is all but invisible, and stands in what
now looks to be the entrance to the circle.
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It is actually, a half-stone,
which fits the sidereal-month calculation.
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Other circles were still extant when Alexander-the-Great
(Thom) made his surveys but have long since
succumbed to the undergrowth.
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The cobbled surround to the great central stone
is now also all but invisible to the naked-eye.
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A nearby cairn when excavated in the late Ninteenth-Century
revealed bones of ‘uncommon size’
and a ‘green-stone’ axe,
shards of which were buried in the forearm
of the skeleton!
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While Burl has no qualms about
referring to the six-foot central stone as a giant
he shrinks from applying that moniker
to the over-sized skeletal remains.
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Now, why would that be?
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France & Vincent 