From Doggerland to Stonehenge

We don’t often get asked about direct links between Doggerland and Stonehenge – although several of the SUBNORDICA group members have been involved in studies of the Stonehenge and Avebury landscapes. Indeed, team members have recently published articles on the discovery of a massive pit structure associated with the henge at Durrington Walls and sourcing of lithics from West Kennet. Last week, however, this question came to the fore in an article published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. The authors suggest that the Altar Stone, sourced to northeast Scotland, arrived at Stonehenge following its deposition on Doggerland as a glacial erratic.

A link between Stonehenge and glacial erratics is not a new suggestion. The potential origin of the Stonehenge bluestones as erratics has been debated for some time, with the archaeological community generally dismissing the idea. With respect to the Altar Stone, the recent article suggests that, having been moved by Mother Nature from northern Scotland to the area of Doggerland, the stone was venerated by Mesolithic communities there and later taken to Wiltshire, directly or indirectly, as sea level rose. Whilst such a journey was certainly possible, the complexity of such a move, set against the challenges of sea level rise and incorporation as part of Stonehenge several thousand years later, probably argues against such a sequence of events. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the current proposal has been challenged by archaeologists and glaciologists. The lack of a cultural context for such a proposal is also challenging. Whilst the evidence for complex ritual and social action during the Mesolithic in Britain is increasing, there is currently no comparator for such a proposal and the evidence for early megalithic structures is both later and linked to the south and west of the British Isles. So how did the Altar stone get to Stonehenge – whether transported by glaciers or not – the answer is still probably brute force, boats or a combination of both!

Attached map, by Mike Pitts, illustrates the proposed glacial drop zone in relation to Doggerland development (Backdrop provided by the Submerged Landscapes Research Centre Allaby et al PNAS 2026)