And now for something different

Occasionally we plan to have a special edition newsletter, giving us the opportunity to look at a specific topic in greater detail, and this is the first of these. This feature edition is concentrating on one of the earliest parts of our heritage and one that in reality not a great deal is known about. Next week we will be back to our more usual format.

If you asked a load of people what was the oldest or most important heritage site we have in the UK, many would say Stonehenge, and built around the time of the pyramids it's a good starting point for us to consider our heritage within the British islands. Others might select Avebury of about the same age. There is one more similar site that far fewer are aware of, as it's not a tourist destination, although more original and in many ways more interesting. The feature that they, and around a thousand other sites, have is a stone circle. These are likely to be the remains of a number of different structures and have different uses, most are in country locations and represent photographers with a range of challenges.  How to take photographs of them or elements of them, how to try to tell a story and what the story could be.

This weeks photograph was taken at Avebury, it shows a part of the stone circle, and part of the West Kennet avenue beyond, some way away. This photograph is as taken, it's not a piece of cut and paste editing. It uses the technique those of you who have attended the Hands on a Nikon training day will recognise of changing perspective and closing up items by using a telephoto lens. To achieve this I needed to get the position right, so as to still have a curve on the circle, and select the aperture and focus point so as to have both enough depth of field to get it all in focus, as with a longer telephoto you will realise the depth of field is limited. The time of day was chosen so that we had the benefit of shadows, adding to the composition. In other stone circles I have different challenges to overcome, such as how to take a photograph of a very large item when I have no space to get back.

This week we have a number of articles on stone circles and where we usually have only one featured location that you could visit, this week we have 25, 22 of which are locations of stone circles and 3 representing other items that could perhaps be mistaken for them, plus we have a further 6 location guides, most of which have only fallen short of featured status as we haven't yet found a good photo to add, so 31 in total.

Some of this weeks featured location pages introduce a new feature, a photo rotator, this shows a series of photographs, in a single space on the page, but when you click on one, the selected image is shown in a separate window. As before, clicking on many of our smaller images, shows a larger one.

We are replacing the previous featured location symbol, which looked like Ý with a new one an eye , meaning something really worth looking at. We have also extended the Planning Grid including a little more information, and when time permits we will add these extra lines to the previous location guides.

In addition we have several listings of stone circles, and some other useful background information relating to getting locations from a grid reference. This page also has a lot of other useful information.

Listings of stone circles

A selection of stone circles, lists some of the stone circles in England, Scotland and Wales that a variety of people have recommended, and gives the county, nearest place and a grid reference. Some of the sites we have featured are linked from this page.

All known stone circles - in alphabetical order (large file).

All Known stone circles - sorted by grid reference (large file).

3 Other stone features that are not stone circles but perhaps could be mistaken for them

Cairnholy - Dumfries & Galloway . The remains of a long barrow with standing stones that at first sight look as if it could have been a stone circle.

Carn Euny Ancient village - Cornwall

Chysuaster Ancient village - Cornwall

Plus a whole load more.......

Alpha Listing of all additions this week, the items marked are featured items that contain far more details and pictures.

News Section

No News section this week as this is a special Themed week, so watch out for more news next week.