One final equinox (2016)
The removal of the industrial horizon, the buildings, and other infrastructure was accompanied by the gradual erasure of Sighthill Park itself and even the stone circle. The stones could not hold back the forces of urban regeneration, and by March 2016 they had been ear-marked for removal for some time. The landscape was in flux. Earlier that year a great gouge had been cut through the park near the stone circle to allow vehicular access for the destruction machines. This incision through the grass revealed the true constitution of the park, which must have been formed by the dumping and mounding of a mass of debris, aggregate, rubble, and rubbish from elsewhere. The park was terraformed but with such poor quality foundations it is no wonder the plants looked so sickly. A glance into this rupture revealed broken bricks, wires, plastic piping, broken glass, and even broken fragments of granite gravestones. Across the park at this time, metal fences were erected, and paths closed off, but even then the stone circle had its most vibrant moment. The spring equinox in 2016 offered a chance for a celebration of the circle. Dozens of people gathered to meet Duncan Lunan and other players in the stone circle story, and there was music, fire, snacks, improvised pot firing, laughter and some tears. This convivial gathering contrasted with the violence of the surrounding weeks and months; here the renewal of the sun was used as a suitable point to mark the eventual – hoped for – renewal of the stone circle and Sighthill itself, a hope toasted with beer and fire.
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