Devil's Arrows: Ancient builders hauled 55k-lb stones 11 miles for UK stone row

8 comments

• cjs_ac 2 hours ago
  Also, Stonehenge was built (partially) from parts of other stone circles, from as far away as Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56029203
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  • graemep 27 minutes ago
    and at least one stone came from Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207lqdn755o
• dmichulke 3 hours ago
  25-tonne stones for 18km in case you wondered
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  • SECProto 1 hour ago
    Or 3928 stone stones

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)

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    • walthamstow 41 minutes ago
      Stones are the Fahrenheit of weight. Useful for the human body but fuck all else.
  • robertlagrant 3 hours ago
    For anyone confused, British people would generally use tonnes (or tons, but maybe not know the difference exactly) and miles.
  • nickt 1 hour ago
    Or about 3 double-decker buses for the length of 171 footy pitches.
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    • gnufx 1 hour ago
      That's not dimensionally correct! Double-decker bus is a unit of length, and footy pitch is too prosaic to be an approved unit: https://www.theregister.com/bootnotes/2026/05/31/the-reg-onl...
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      • tantalor 40 minutes ago
        It's not too prosaic, it's just too imprecise. There is no standard size, and some regulations even allow a range of sizes.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch
      • frereubu 43 minutes ago
        It's a shame it's not about area then at least we could agree on Wales as a unit.
    • blater 1 hour ago
      to clarify for those of a nautical bent - that's about half a blue whale for about 4/5ths of a dozen nautical miles
• spikels 23 minutes ago
  Strange they don't mention how many stones. Image shows two. There are three today and four, maybe five, originally.
• ChrisRR 3 hours ago
  Imperial is confusing at the best of times, but couldn't they have said 24.5 tons instead of 55,000 lbs?
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  • Xmd5a 26 minutes ago
    Sir ...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_ton

    > he long ton,[1] also known as the imperial ton, displacement ton,[1][2] or British ton,[3] is a measurement unit equal to 2,240 pounds
  • guenthert 2 hours ago
    They could have said 3300 stones stones ...
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    • euroderf 1 hour ago
      That rocks.
  • masfuerte 2 hours ago
    That's the way they like it. American road signs have mad shit like "No trucks over 15,000 lbs".
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    • walthamstow 1 hour ago
      Surely they don't actually like drill bits measured in fractions of an inch, do they?
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      • edoceo 1 hour ago
        Yes, in USA the bits are in fractions and stuff you purchase will have instructions like, drill 3/8 hole for a wall anchor, or 2+1/4 hole for a door-bolt set.
    • thechao 2 hours ago
      That's because we measure weight in tonnage.
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      • close04 1 hour ago
        In the EU and UK the weight of the vehicle is on the signs too [0], or the weight per axle [1].

        [0] https://hgvlgvtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/weig...

        [1] https://freesvg.org/img/B13a.png
• hashim 1 hour ago
  The word for this structure is apparently a menhir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir. The article calls it the tallest in the UK but its Wikipedia page calls it the second-tallest. This is the actual tallest, interestingly also in Yorkshire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudston_Monolith.
• ButlerianJihad 3 hours ago
  This must be the origin of the saying, “People who start stone rows shouldn’t build glass houses”.
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  • vogelke 1 hour ago
    Lovely.
• surfingdino 15 minutes ago
  Must have been a contractor. The permies would wait for the procurement process to pick someone to move those stones for them. /s
• dgan 51 minutes ago
  Need 7 more paragraphes telling us that the stones, weren't in fact, chosen from the nearest location, but were chosen from a distant location.

  Without ever telling *how" they were moved of course, that would give out too much