Herbert Thomas suggested it in 1923 .

Doesn't really come as a surprise that the bluestones were used prior to Stown'enge ("where the Vikings dwell").

If you've been lucky enough to scale the Preselli hills from West to East (and back), the landscape and immediate environs are of so wild and breath-taking a nature that it would be remarkable if our Neolithic forbears hadn't constructed something epic to celebrate the place and their place in it. I find it hard to believe that the only evidence of their 'being there' was the piffly, off the summit Bedd Arthur in terms of stone circles near the quarries.

Further to the North East, at the Western end of the Preselli Hills (about 5 Km) is the super imposing Mynydd Carningli which literally towers above the landscape like some enormous volcanic elemental overseer, then you've the two smaller, less imposing hills of Mynydd Castlebythe and Mynydd Cilciffeth closer to Preselli, it's deffo a place to dream and contemplate our place in the grande scheme of things, that's fer sure.

There are quite a few natural bluestone out-crops all along the hill top, from about the middle onwards, but mostly to the Eastern end near the equally imposing hill of Foeldrygarn.

It'll be exciting if they manage to track down the site of the bluestone monument, would deffo hoof it up there for another butchers, that's fer sure!

Of course I have nothing to back this up. But then even that doesn't rule me out of being MPP... However I have been in the same room as him so it's unlikely. Although I don't believe there are any photos, so the jury is still out.

G x

This has been a very interesting discussion which I've dipped in and out to read. I always hesitate to comment on discussions about Stonehenge because new theories come along on what seems like an annual basis. What is completely acceptable about this one is that the bluestone quarries have been identified.

I found this quote from the Mike Pitts link (thanks Moss) quite exciting ...
"The special formation of the rock, which forms natural pillars at these outcrops, allowed the prehistoric quarry-workers to detach each megalith (standing stone) with a minimum of effort. “They only had to insert wooden wedges into the cracks between the pillars and then let the Welsh rain do the rest by swelling the wood to ease each pillar off the rock face” said Dr Josh Pollard (University of Southampton). “The quarry-workers then lowered the thin pillars onto platforms of earth and stone, a sort of ‘loading bay’ from where the huge stones could be dragged away along trackways leading out of each quarry.”

So the mystery, if there is one, is where were the bluestones for up to 500 years. I don't suppose we will ever know whether their journey towards south Wiltshire was a long and arduous one with breaks between generations of people. Perhaps there was a slave culture which was interrupted through conflict - its hard to believe there was ever a time when there actually peace among humankind.
I doubt whether it can ever be proved the stones once stood as a separate Welsh monument first but that doesn't make it impossible .... and the idea does conjure up an impressive image.

Article from MPP today:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/12/11/stonehenge-wasnt-the-first-second-hand-prehistoric-monument/#.Vmwh29KLSt9

Discuss.