Index to Stonehenge Viewpoint Folder

Astronomy and Ley Lines – Folder 1 contains an extract from an article by Donald Cyr, published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 35 (May-June 1980). The subject is the astronomical orientation of ley lines. Folder 2 is my skeptical rejoinder to this, published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 38 (November-December 1980). Folder 3 is a partial response to my skepticism from Don, published in the same issue.

A Bride for Hamlet’s Mill – Folder 1 contains an extract from Donald Cyr’s article of that title, published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 36 (July-August 1980). Folder 2 contains my rejoinder to this, “Comments on the Bridal Path Concept”, and Folder 3 contains Donald Cyr’s partial response to this, “Some Alignments in Aberdeenshire”, both published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 37 (September-October 1980). [Hamlet’s Mill, subtitled “an Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time”, was a book by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, first published in 1969. Don had a particular fondness for it, and very kindly sent me a copy. Unfortunately I didn’t share his enthusiasm, finding it, as I said at the time, not unlike reading the small print of an insurance policy through a thick fog.]

Lands End – This section is devoted to the controversy generated by John Michell’s book The Old Stones of Lands End (1974) and the computer analysis of the ley lines contained in it conducted by Chris Hutton-Squire and Pat Gadsby of the Undercurrents Alternative Science Research Unit. The expedition to Lands End mentioned in Folders 3, 4 and 5 took place in October-November 1977, and accounts of it were subsequently published in The Ley Hunter issue 79. These accounts are reproduced in The Ley Hunter folder of the present website (access here.)

Folder 1. This contains a copy of the original Undercurrents survey, issued as a leaflet at the exhibition of the results, held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in the spring of 1976. This leaflet was reprinted in The Ley Hunter magazine issue 70 in the summer of 1976. The results were also subsequently published, in a slightly extended form, in the magazine Undercurrents, issue 17 (August-September 1976), and this can be found on Michael Behrend’s website at:

http://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/repubs/gadsby_hs/pages/index.html .

The Comments on this from me on Michael’s site effectively reproduce Folder 2 below.

Folder 2. This outlines a possible objection to the significance of the ley lines which had seemingly been demonstrated by the Undercurrents Survey. I first raised this objection in a letter published in The Ley Hunter issue 73 (reproduced in The Ley Hunter folder on this website), but a fuller account of the objection was really only published for the first time in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 55 (September-October 1983). It appeared together with a characteristic editorial rejoinder from Donald Cyr.

Folder 3. Relating to the foregoing, this folder contains a letter-to-the-editor from me, and a rejoinder to my article in Folder 2 by John Michell, both published in Stonehenge Viewpoint 56 (November-December 1983).

Folder 4. This contains my response to John’s article in Folder 3, published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 59 (May-June 1984).

Folder 5. This contains a further response from John, published in Stonehenge Viewpoint issue 61 in September-October 1984. It was in this article that John suggested an expedition to Lands End to try to sort out a satisfactory database, and this did actually take place, under the auspices of Stonehenge Viewpoint, in the summer of 1985. Alas it didn’t yield any consensus of opinion, simply because it became quite impossible to distinguish between a natural rocky outcrop and a possibly buried standing stone.

Donald Cyr – This folder contains my Tribute to Donald Cyr, written at his request (!) and published in The Midwestern Epigraphic Journal, vol. 12/13 (1998-1999). This issue of the journal, which contained tributes from a number of people, had originally been planned in celebration of Don being presented with the Barry Fell Award for 1998. Sadly, Don died suddenly in May 1999, and the tributes became obituaries. To view, click here.

“The Cow that jumped over the Moon” and “The Stonehenge Watch” are both mentioned in that tribute, as “typical of Don”. Both can be viewed here.