Survey (2021)
Here we see a panorama of the new Sighthill Stone Circle (rendered here to look more like a stone row) during plane table and photogrammetry survey in September 2021. This work was undertaken by a team of students from the University of Glasgow Archaeology Department who carried out two days of survey work. This was a training exercise but also an acknowledgement that this new incarnation of the monument is still an archaeological site – a stone circle – even although it is barely three years old. From time to time, one hears the argument that this cannot be a stone circle because it is not ancient: but if it is not a stone circle then what is it? This survey was a chance to be immersed in the circle, a sensory experience in more ways than one. The hum of the M8 was a constant soundtrack to this work and with extensive views of the Glasgow skyline and the hills beyond, it was finally possible to appreciate Duncan Lunan’s vision for this monument and the appropriateness of this place. The skyline of Sighthill and Glasgow may have radically changed since 1900, but the more profound and stable skyline is more enduring, a background of hills, notches, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Housing to the west, many still clad in their scaffold garments, means that some astronomical alignments will not be possible to experience for many decades. But the hills, heavenly bodies and the standing stones will outlive everything we build today and continue to exist in harmony for millennia.