Stone circle can be the star of Sighthill redevelopment

UST over four years ago, it was feared the sun had finally set on Glasgow’s astronomically aligned Stonehenge. Now, however, work is set to begin on restoring the modern stone circle which charmed and delighted so many Glaswegians and visitors encountering such an unexpected sight in an urban park.

The Sighthill Stones, in Sighthill Park near the M8 motorway, were erected in 1979 as part of a job creation programme. While, on the face of it, the project might have seemed like a gimmick, an end in itself to provide work purposeless beyond recreational curiosity, the circle’s creators intended it to have meaning: to form the first authentically aligned stone circle in 3,500 years and to honour Glaswegian academics who had pioneered controversial work on “ancient astronomy”.

Thus when, in autumn 2012, Glasgow City Council announced plans to revamp the Sighthill area, it looked like the stones’ days were numbered, with a sports facility of no known ethereal or astronomical significance set to stand in their stead. Somewhat to the council’s surprise, this prompted a passionate campaign to save the stones.

The campaign went beyond adherents of esoteric astronomy, for local folk loved the stones in themselves. They had become a part of the landscape, a place of informal pilgrimage, much more than a dispensable folly. Rock stars, writers and the Order of Bards, Ovate and Druids backed the campaign.

Caught between rock stars and a hard place, the council reassured campaigners the removed stone circle would be put back, topsoil and all (ashes have been scattered there). It will be reborn on a site originally planned for it, one better aligned with the celestial spheres.

High fives all round. Sighthill is undergoing a massive regeneration programme involving housing and improved city centre links. In the midst of all this, we say that, even regardless of astronomical significance, the magical megalithic can be the area’s star attraction.