Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
The stone circle at Beltany Tops sits like a crown on the hilltop above the townland in Donegal whose name it bears. Beltany seems to be an anglicisation of the old Gaelic festival ‘Bealtaine’, celebrated with fires and festivities at the start of May.
At dawn at the astronomical cross-quarter day in May, the sun rises directly behind a low, pointed stone in the north-east of the circle. This stone was singled out to be decorated with dozens of ‘cup marks’, small hollows pecked into the stone. It is not known, however, whether this decoration pre-dates the use of the stone in the circle itself.
Cup marks are a common feature of prehistoric rock art in Ireland and the size, shape and decoration of this stone, along with its position, suggests this was intended to indicate the sunrise on the feast day after which the circle is named.
Print only on heavyweight fine art cotton rag paper
The stone circle at Beltany Tops sits like a crown on the hilltop above the townland in Donegal whose name it bears. Beltany seems to be an anglicisation of the old Gaelic festival ‘Bealtaine’, celebrated with fires and festivities at the start of May.
At dawn at the astronomical cross-quarter day in May, the sun rises directly behind a low, pointed stone in the north-east of the circle. This stone was singled out to be decorated with dozens of ‘cup marks’, small hollows pecked into the stone. It is not known, however, whether this decoration pre-dates the use of the stone in the circle itself.
Cup marks are a common feature of prehistoric rock art in Ireland and the size, shape and decoration of this stone, along with its position, suggests this was intended to indicate the sunrise on the feast day after which the circle is named.
Print only on heavyweight fine art cotton rag paper