Devil's Arrows: Ancient builders hauled 55k-lb stones 11 miles for UK stone row

dmichulke•about 2 hours ago

25-tonne stones for 18km in case you wondered

SECProto•about 1 hour ago

Or 3928 stone stones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_(unit)

robertlagrant•about 2 hours ago

For anyone confused, British people would generally use tonnes (or tons, but maybe not know the difference exactly) and miles.

nickt•about 1 hour ago

Or about 3 double-decker buses for the length of 171 footy pitches.

gnufx•42 minutes ago

That's not dimensionally correct! Double-decker bus is a unit of length, and footy pitch is too prosaic to be an approved unit: https://www.theregister.com/bootnotes/2026/05/31/the-reg-onl...

blater•25 minutes ago

to clarify for those of a nautical bent - that's about half a blue whale for about 4/5ths of a dozen nautical miles

cjs_ac•about 2 hours ago

Also, Stonehenge was built (partially) from parts of other stone circles, from as far away as Wales: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56029203

ChrisRR•about 2 hours ago

Imperial is confusing at the best of times, but couldn't they have said 24.5 tons instead of 55,000 lbs?

guenthert•about 2 hours ago

They could have said 3300 stones stones ...

euroderf•about 1 hour ago

That rocks.

masfuerte•about 2 hours ago

That's the way they like it. American road signs have mad shit like "No trucks over 15,000 lbs".

walthamstow•about 1 hour ago

Surely they don't actually like drill bits measured in fractions of an inch, do they?

edoceo•15 minutes ago

Yes, in USA the bits are in fractions and stuff you purchase will have instructions like, drill 3/8 hole for a wall anchor, or 2+1/4 hole for a door-bolt set.

thechao•about 1 hour ago

That's because we measure weight in tonnage.

close04•35 minutes ago

In the EU and UK the weight of the vehicle is on the signs too [0], or the weight per axle [1].

[0] https://hgvlgvtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/weig...

[1] https://freesvg.org/img/B13a.png

hashim•38 minutes ago

The word for this structure is apparently a menhir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir. The article calls it the tallest in the UK but its Wikipedia page calls it the second-tallest. This is the actual tallest, interestingly also in Yorkshire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudston_Monolith.

ButlerianJihad•about 2 hours ago

This must be the origin of the saying, “People who start stone rows shouldn’t build glass houses”.

vogelke•about 1 hour ago

Lovely.

Devil's Arrows: Ancient builders hauled 55k-lb stones 11 miles for UK stone row

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