About the model
Calanais I on the west coast of Lewis: a flattened ring of 13 Lewisian gneiss stones round a central monolith about 4.8 m tall, with a north-north-east avenue of two rows (19 stones), short rows to the east, south and west, two outliers (Stones 9 and 34) and Stone 35 south-east of the ring, and a small chambered cairn squeezed between the monolith and the east side of the ring; 49 stones stand. The monolith and ring were set up around 2900 BC or a little before (Ashmore prefers 2950-2850 BC), the cairn after about 2500 BC; the rows may be later (the innermost east-row stone 2560-1690 cal BC). Peat about 1.5 m deep buried the lower parts from the 1st millennium BC until it was cleared in 1857 on Sir James Matheson's orders. Restored: Stone 35 set up after 1857 (by 1867) and set in concrete; Stone 33a, found fallen in the peat in 1977, re-erected in its own socket on 20 July 1982; the tip of Stone 19 put back in 1978; parts of the cairn rebuilt after 1857 and again after the 1980-81 excavations; some stones have cement patches. Stone numbers follow Somerville (1912) as used by Ashmore (2016): 1-8 and 34 east side of the avenue, 10-19 west side, 20-23 west row, 24-28 south row (24 southernmost), 29 central monolith, 30-33 and 33a east row (30 innermost), 9 and 35 outliers, 41-53 the ring (43 and 44 flank the cairn passage). Research file for the 3D model; quotes are exact text from the cited pages (whitespace normalised); 'derived' marks values computed or inferred.