The ancient standing stones, stone circles and burial chambers of Wales - remarkable feats of construction that are surrounded by legend.

Winner of Current Archaeology’s Book of the Year Discover the iconic standing stones and prehistoric sites of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland—this comprehensive, coffee table travel guide features over 750 must-see destinations, with maps and color photographs The ultimate insiders’ guide, The Old Stones gives unparalleled insight into where to find prehistoric sites and how to understand them, by drawing on the knowledge, expertise and passion of the archaeologists, theorists, photographers and stones aficionados who contribute to the world’s biggest megalithic website—the Megalithic Portal. Including over 30 maps and site plans and hundreds of color photographs, it also contains scores of articles by a wide range of contributors—from archaeologists and archaeoastronomers to dowsers and geomancers—that will change the way you see these amazing survivals from our distant past. Locate over 1,000 of Britain and Ireland’s most atmospheric prehistoric places, from recently discovered moorland circles to standing stones hidden in housing estates. Discover which sites could align with celestial bodies or horizon landmarks. Explore acoustic, color, and shadow theory to get inside the minds of the Neolithic and Bronze Age people who created these extraordinary places. Find out which sites have the most spectacular views, which are the best for getting away from it all and which have been immortalized in music. And don't forget to visit the Megalithic Portal website and get involved by posting your discoveries online. All royalties from this book go to support the running of the Megalithic Portal: www.megalithic.com.

Ireland.

Medieval boundaries, early Christian monuments or merely stones for cattle to scratch their backs on? This review and collection of new evidence suggests that the overwhelming number of those that have a prehistoric context are in places which have a ritual significance.

David Corio has systematically photographed the megalithic sites of England and Wales with the eye of a great landscape photographer as well as with the passion of an explorer in the ruins of an ancient culture. These photographs go to the heart of prehistoric England and reveal a profound sense of 'place'. The sites are revealed with all the beauty that invited Romantic speculation from the seventeenth century onwards as well as the encroaching modern world of distant urban skylines and protective barriers. Lai Ngan's text distils the mythical narratives that arose around these extraordinary structures and places as well as pointing to the recent astronomical and mathematical research which suggests their remarkable function in the prehistoric calendar. The photographs point to the beginning of architecture itself in Britain, with the suggestion of both sacred and secular function, layered in the fabulous tales of popular imagination.