Until the 1857 clearance, visitors walked on a peat-raised surface about 1.5 m (5 ft) above the cleared ground; the pre-peat landscape was not 5 ft higher. Peat began accumulating around 1000 BC as conditions deteriorated, burying the stones' lower parts and the central chamber while the upper parts remained visible. Local people had long cut peat for fuel. Sir James Matheson arranged the 1857 clearance, exposing more of the monument.
Callanish: peat raised the ground before the 1857 clearance
Site mentioned
📍 Callinish Standing Stones [Island of Lewis] - Callanish II🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- Immediately before the 1857 clearance, the peat-covered surface stood about 1.5 m (5 ft) above the cleared ground; the pre-peat landscape was not 5 ft higher.
- Peat began accumulating around 1000 BC as the climate deteriorated and continued to deepen over the site.
- Peat buried the lower parts of the stones and the central chamber, but not the whole stones; their upper parts remained visible.
- Clearance plans were made in 1856; about 1.5 m of peat was removed from the main site in 1857 by landowner Sir James Matheson.
- Jacob Vorso's nineteenth-century sketches show the stones projecting from the higher peat-covered ground.
- Local people traditionally cut peat for fuel.
Sources
megalithomania.co.uk
Linked in video description
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