Summary
We have been studying the megalithic monuments in western Scotland for a considerable period, and uncovering more and more fascinating landscape and skyscape systems that have been set up by the users of these stones to observe the sky and connect the sky and the land. In the last years we have focused on the standing stones on Mull. Mull, situated at the west coast of Scotland, harbours about 40 standing stone sites, ranging from single stones to short stone rows and to a full stone circle (Lochbuie) made up of 9 stones. Although exact dating is not available for each site on Mull, the general expectation is that these monuments were erected during the middle to late Bronze Age period. In this paper we will focus on Lochbuie, the most complex site on the isle, in particular, the geometric arrangements of the Lochbuie site constituents (3 separate standing stones, a Neolithic-EBA kerbed cairn, and a stone circle) as well as the individual components. Through the calculation and modelling of alignment orientations, aided by 2D/3D GIS and immersion models, along with the trialling of the geobrowser Zoom.Earth (NASA), the clearest cultural conclusion about this site is the interest in aligning the megalithic monuments to the Sun and the Moon, in particular the standing stone monuments. This site of Lochbuie is another example where Bronze Age monuments are grouped such that a number of astronomical targets are covered within a small local region, such as that found in the Kilmartin Valley (Burl 2000). Highly significantly, the astronomical alignments are included here en masse, just like at two of the earliest Late Neolithic stone circles of Scotland, Stenness and Callanish. Thus, it seems this small area may have had a similar function to these past great circles, setting out the greater cosmological order of the two most visible astronomical bodies.
Keywords
Megaliths. Standing stones. Scotland. GIS. Immersion Technology. Zoom. Earth. Geobrowser.