Beltany stone circle

The stone circle of Beltany (Irish At Bhealtaine ) or Beltany Tops is located about three kilometers south of Raphoe in County Donegal in Ireland. The name Beltany goes back to the Celtic fertility festival of Beltane or Beltaine.

The stone circle has a diameter of over 44 meters and consists of 64 stones obtained on a 1 to 1.2 meter high platform on a hill called Tops. Originally, the county could have consisted of 80 stones.

The stones with an average height of 1.6 m are close to each other and form a ring around the platform located in the interior (a low grave mound ). They consequently exhibit parallels to the 100-km south-west to Carrowmore Megalithic. Some of the passage tombs of Carrowmore still have the characteristic stone ring, which forms the boundary of Cairns. Beltany is therefore regarded as a transitional form between passage tomb and stone circle. Aubrey Burl (1926-2009) assumes that it is Beltany is one of the first stone circles, which arose before 3000 BC. Other organize it in the Irish Bronze Age (1400-800 BC).