page_title: Stone circle
section_title: British Isles
hierarchical_section_title: Stone circle / Distribution / British Isles
caption_attribution_description: English: "Carrigagulla" stone circle, is found to the north of the village of Ballinagree County Cork, Ireland. Photograph taken 12th August 2006
context_page_description: A stone circle is a circular alignment of standing stones. They are commonly found across Northern Europe and Great Britain, and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age eras, with most concentrations appearing from 3000 BCE. The best known examples include those at the henge monument at Avebury, the Rollright Stones, and elements within the ring of standing stones at Stonehenge. Ancient stone circles appear throughout Europe, with many existing in the Pyrenees, on the Causse de Blandas in southern France in the Cevennes, in the Alps, Bulgaria, and Poland. Another type can be found in the Horn of Africa.
  Stone circles are usually grouped in terms of the shape and size of the stones, the span of their radius, and their population within the local area. Although many theories have been advanced to explain their use, usually related to providing a setting for ceremony or ritual, there is no consensus among archaeologists as to their intended function. Their construction often involved considerable communal effort, including specialist tasks such as planning, quarrying, transportation, laying the foundation trenches, and final construction.
context_section_description: There are approximately 1,300 stone circles in Britain and Ireland. Experts disagree as to whether the construction of megaliths in England was independently developed or imported from mainland Europe. 
  
  A 2019 comprehensive radiocarbon dating study of megalithic structures across Europe and the British Isles concluded that construction techniques were spread to other communities via sea routes, starting from northwestern France. In contrast, the French archaeologist Jean-Pierre Mohen in his book Le Monde des Megalithes has written that the British Isles are 
  "outstanding in the abundance of standing stones, and the variety of circular architectural complexes of which they formed a part ... strikingly original, they have no equivalent elsewhere in Europe – strongly supporting the argument that the builders were independent."
  Some theories suggest that invaders from Brittany may have been responsible for constructing Stonehenge
  Although stone circles are widely distributed across the island, Ireland has two main concentrations: in the Cork/Kerry area and in mid-Ulster. The latter typically consist of a greater number of small stones, usually 0.3 m high, and are often found in upland areas and on sites that also contain a stone alignment. The Cork/Kerry circles tend to be more irregular in shape, and with larger, but fewer and more widely spaced, orthostats around the axial stone.
caption: Stone circle at the Carrigagulla complex, County Cork, Ireland
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