Were the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds a way of keeping track of the calendar thousands of years ago? Over the coming months, astronomers are expecting to see 'major lunar standstill'. In the eighth instalment of her bestselling Almanac, Lia Leendertz describes how 2025 will be the year for this event and explores the theory that a great many of Britain and Ireland's standing stones and stone circles tracked the moon's cycles and gave ancient people an understanding of when significant events, such as eclipses, would occur.
The Rollright Stones have a possible midwinter alignment, something that is a common feature of most megaliths. It was the most important moment in the calendar - a way of knowing that the darkest days had passed, and that brighter days, and spring, were on their way.
Lia's Almanac provides essential information that's needed to celebrate, mark and appreciate each month, including Midsummer, Halloween and everything in between.
In this extract from the book she explains why many of us will be fixated with the sky next year:
RECOMMENDED READING
- The origins of the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds
- Cotswold Ways Walk: Chipping Norton to the Rollright Stones
- Stunning aerial photography of ancient Cotswold landmarks
In 2025 the moon is at ‘major lunar standstill’. This phenomenon, which occurs every 18.6 years, may have been tracked by our neolithic ancestors in many stone circles. All of this year the moon will vacillate between being extremely high in the sky and extremely low: from northern latitudes it will barely skim the horizon at times, to dramatic effect as it always looks larger when it is near the horizon. We will see this in June at Callanish Stones on Lewis.
As we are considering how ancient people observed the goings-on in the sky, it makes sense to look at this from an earthbound perspective (admittedly, it is fiendishly difficult to describe from a cosmic one). The moon’s rising and setting points on the horizon change through each month as well as through the seasons just like those of the sun, except the full moon rises and sets at its most southerly positions on the horizon in midsummer (and so is low in our sky while the sun is high), and at its most northerly positions in midwinter (and so is high in our sky while the sun is low). This would have been easy for our ancestors to track by – for instance – choosing a viewing point with a wide vista and revisiting it at moonrise and set, placing a stake into the ground to mark the position on the horizon.
But there is a further cycle. Due to a combination of the offset angle of the moon’s orbital plane (5.145 degrees) and the angle of the axial tilt of the earth (23.7 degrees), over 18.6 years these rising and setting extremes stretch further north and south until the ultimate extreme positions are reached, and they are at their furthest-apart points on the horizon – and so the moon reaches its very highest and very lowest in our skies. It is called a ‘standstill’ not because the moon itself stands still in any sense but because these extreme positions will remain in place over many months of a standstill year.
The archaeologist Alexander Thom coined the expression 'major lunar standstill’ in his 1971 book Megalithic Lunar Observatories. He theorised that a great many of the standing stones and stone circles of Britain and Ireland tracked this cycle, perhaps using this stake method, and eventually replacing the stakes with standing stones. An understanding of the timing of major lunar standstills is essential for eclipse prediction, an ability that would have provided reassurance – eclipses have been sources of terror and the subjects of folklore the world over. It would also have imbued the priest–astronomers who made such predictions with a great deal of authority and power. The theory goes that this might provide the reason behind many of these mysterious stone circles in our landscape.
* The Almanac is published in hardback by Octopus, priced £12.99.
