In the age of air travel, the Calanais Standing Stones (or Callanish, in the anglicized spelling) are not so hard to get to, and yet, the site feels remote.
The ancient stone megaliths are perched at the edge of the village that shares their name, on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, part of the Outer Hebrides chain of islands that sits off the northwestern coast of Scotland. Having read of Calanais’ status as the “Stonehenge of the North,” I was determined to make the journey; it had been on my bucket list for years.
Stonehenge itself tends to unfairly dominate conversations about prehistoric Britain. Yes, it is the most visited stone circle, and certainly one of the most striking, but it is hardly alone. Many hundreds of ancient stone circles still exist across Britain and Ireland, along with other prehistoric structures like long barrows (elongated burial mounds), passage tombs (burial chambers with narrow entrance passages), and solitary standing stones.
These enigmatic sites carry the visitor back to a time when writing and metal tools were unknown, farming was a still novel idea, and stone monuments established a community’s presence on the landscape. That presence continues to captivate us today — whether it’s Calanais, equally compelling sites further north in the Orkney archipelago, or other Neolithic landmarks.
