Today we highlight a couple of sites in the British Isles which appear to be connected to the stars of Orion’s Belt.

Thornborough Henges

The Thornborough Henges complex in North Yorkshire comprises three henges almost identical in size and composition, each having a diameter of approximately 240 meters with an earth ring 3 meters high. A 12 meter berm separates the banks from the internal ditches which were originally each about 20 meters wide and 3 meters deep while all three henges have twin entrances to the northwest and the southeast. The henges are located around 550m apart on an approximate northwest-southeast alignment, though like Orion’s Belt, not exactly in a straight line.

Altogether, the monument extends NW-SE on a heading of 144 degrees for about a mile. There is a left-hand kink of approximately 7 degrees.

Orkney Henges

Three stone circles form the axis mundi of Neolithic Orkney. The first, Stenness, is perhaps the most impressive despite only three-and-a-half of its eleven original monoliths remaining.

Along the narrow isthmus to the northwest of Stenness stands the more intact Ring of Brodgar, twenty-seven of its original fifty-six sandstones are still upright.

Further along the ridge, there’s a third circle, the Ring of Bookan, occupying the high ground from where it is possible to see the other two sites. All that remains of Bookan is a central mound with a collapsed chamber and a circular ditch filled with soil.

The axis of Bookan, Brodgar and Stenness follows a general NW-SE trajectory of 129 degrees, for just under two miles. But the three sites are not in perfect alignment. From Bookan, the line kinks roughly 9 degrees left at Brodgar to meet the Stenness circle.

Next, we’ll look at some other possible alignment sites in different locations around the world.