During our teenage years we wandered over the beautiful Simonside Hills, bivouacked in Croppy’s Hole and climbed on the little crags at Selby’s Cove – but we didn’t know anything about the Solstice Stone on the north-easterly side of The Beacon (aka Spylaw Beacon), mainly because the stone wasn’t discovered (or rediscovered) until relatively recent times. The following photos were taken during a wee diversion from a circular walk along the tops from Lordenshaws car park to the top of Simonside.
Have a quick look at the pics, then download and read Crispian Oates’ excellent paper via the link and make up YOUR mind – is the holed stone simply a freak of nature with a fortunate alignment, or were our Northumbrian forebears skilled in the astronomic arts?
These two pics show the ends of the hole through the stone.
Click to download Simonside Paper
Thanks to Crispian Oates for permission to download his paper and to Dorothy and Ann for photos.
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