CALLANISH STONES SITE IN SCOTLAND THREATENED BY HUGE WINDFARM PROJECT

As a personal note, I was shocked to read the following news release. I've been to Scotland's Hebrides Callanish (on the Isle of Lewis) and its beauty and importance to prehistory should not be overlooked in planning in the 21st century:

Numerous prehistoric archaeological finds have been discovered around a proposed giant windfarm which the Scottish Government is said to be poised to approve. A new publication highlights the negative impact the controversial 53-turbine Eishken windfarm would impose on the significance of the world-famous Callanish Stones complex.

Local archaeologists Margaret Curtis and her late husband Ron have extensively researched the huge Callanish complex of which the Eishken hills are a part. Their findings stress that Callanish is not just one stone circle but actually encompasses about 30 satellite sites in a major prehistoric astronomical observatory across the southern part of Lewis.

Their submission, entitled 'Callanish: Stones, Moon and Sacred Landscape', to a Scottish Government public inquiry over the £185 million wind scheme has now been published. It coincides with mounting speculation that planning permission will be announced as Enterprise Minister Jim Mather visits the Hebrides to discuss building
windfarms and economic issues.

The Curtises calculate that many of the hills in Eishken are integral to a rare natural phenomenon which only occurs every two decades. Instead of being linked to the sun like Stonehenge and numerous other stone circles, the Callanish landscape is now uniquely believed to be a massive astronomical observatory used to calculate
the movement of the moon. Central to the idea is a range of hills earmarked for the turbines, which resemble a woman sleeping on her back.

Last year Western Isles Council gave the go-ahead to build 13 turbines, a sub-set of a larger scheme, on Feirosbhal and Beinn Mheadhanach - two of the sites the Curtises say would harm the 5,000-year-old lunar observatory. The size of the Eishken scheme was originally set at 133 huge machines but was slashed in a move to ease the proposal through planning and achieve speedy permission. Building more turbines in a second phase is not ruled out.



Source: The Press and Journal (6 April 2009)
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