SPRING EQUINOX (20th March 2020).
Despite the glorious sunshine, the ancient stone circle at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis was uncharacteristically deserted. We didn’t know it then but, 72 hours later, we would be back at home and at the start of the first ‘lockdown’ of the Covid pandemic. But on that day, very close to the Spring Equinox, we were lucky enough to experience the almost magical alignment of sun and standing stones, usually a time and place for celebration. The Gaelic name for the standing stones is ‘tursachan’, meaning ‘a place of sadness’ and so it turned out to be.
View over Loch Ceann Hulabhig from Callanish (the name is thought to be derived from the Viking ‘Kalladarnes’ meaning ‘promontory from which a ferry is called’, possibly from here to Great Bernera).
The view to the south-east from the stone circle encompasses a line of hills that together resemble a recumbent woman. She is known, paradoxically as either the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (a representation of the ‘White Goddess / ‘universal earth mother’) or ‘Cailleach na Mointeach’ (‘old woman of the moors’). At regular intervals in the lunar cycle the moon rises over this figure and swings around the southern horizon, on rare occasions appearing briefly among the standing stones. As with other stone circles, such phenomena lend weight to the idea of astronomy, in particular alignments of the stones with the moon and/or sun, being the motivation for the construction of a monument on this site about 5000 years ago.
With our backs turned to the ‘Goddess’ or the ‘old woman’ at around noon that day, it was close enough to the equinox for us to observe the sun shining through a tiny hole in the natural rocky outcrop (Cnoc an Tursa) at the south end of the monument. The pencil of light falling on the grass beyond points the way north towards the central circle of 14 megaliths surrounding the tallest stone which stands at about 16 feet.
At midday on the true equinox, the shadow of each standing stone touches the foot of the next stone in a row that leads north to the central circle. From there single rows of stones emerge to the east and west, their shadows falling ahead of them while a long corridor of currently 18 stones stretches out slightly to the north-east of the central group.
Such was the strength of the sun that day that it was only in the shade behind each stone that we could make out some of the textures and patterns on the megaliths. Each is a slab of local Lewisian gneiss and many bear an impressive array of lichens. These early simple plant forms can survive the harshest of environments and carry a long history of their own.
AUTUMN EQUINOX (22nd September 2023).
More by luck than design, we found ourselves back at Callanish on the day of the Autumn Equinox. While it is true that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, this only actually happens at the spring and autumn equinoxes. (During the summer the sun rises and sets to the north of due east and west; in winter sunrise and sunset occur to the south of due east and west.) So before sunset on this day the sun was low but still north of the western horizon where its beams radiated through breaks in the cloud. This time, despite the dull weather, there were many people, some wandering dreamingly around the stones, some hugging or stroking them; there was an air of peacefulness and almost reverence. The sense of people gathering to share an experience was tangible as if in awe of a special or even spiritual event at a place where generations of people have come together in mutual respect for the land, the natural world, the turning of the seasons, history and human endeavour
The overall plan of the monument as viewed from the north resembles a Celtic cross which led to speculation that it was an early Christian site, possibly built as penance for perceived sins. Yet it was apparently constructed in several phases, the first being the erection of the central 14 megaliths about 5000 years ago, long before the Christian era. Subsequently a cairn was constructed in the centre, probably for a burial, but it was later dismantled perhaps indicating a change in beliefs or funeral practices. Stories and legends about the monument abound, involving birds and animals, witches and fairies and even people turned to stone for their transgressions.
In the soft evening light in 2023, the central stones seemed to huddle together, some partially obscuring others and appearing almost fused to make a seemingly impenetrable barrier around the central area where the cairn used to be.
From around 3000 years ago peat began to form on much of the island of Lewis, burying the cairn and building up around the stones to a depth of five or six feet. It was only when the peat was removed in 1857 that additional stones were uncovered and the true height of the larger megaliths in all their magnificence was revealed. The whole monument then stood proud against a landscape now turned over to modern farming.
But it is the stones themselves that should have the last word. The local Lewisian gneiss slabs seem to have been chosen not only for their size and shape but also for their beauty, colour and patterning and especially for those containing large crystals of dark hornblende. Weathering then further textured their surfaces and lichens found a foothold to survive and grow over the centuries since.
Acknowledgement: Much of the information for this blog came form a wonderful wee book by Gerald Ponting, “CALLANISH and Other Megalithic Sites of the Outer Hebrides.” Published by Wooden Books Ltd 2007