For many people familiar with the Calanais Standing Stones, our guest will need no introduction.
His research on Calanais, undertaken together with his no less well known late wife, Margaret Curtis, earned them the British Archaeological Award in 1978.
And it’s likely many will be aware of, if not own, his book ‘Callanish and other Megalithic Sites of the Outer Hebrides’ or any of his other megalithic themed volumes - about stone circles in general, the megalithic sites of Brittany and the ancient earthworks of Wessex.
However, his interests extend far beyond stones and henges -
Gerald Ponting was brought up on a small farm in Hampshire - the subject of 'Scenes from a Hampshire Childhood'. He attended grammar school in Salisbury and obtained a degree in zoology at the University of Southampton.
For 30 years, he was a biology teacher in Suffolk, Stornoway and finally back in Hampshire.
While in the Hebrides, he was awarded a British Archaeological Award 1978 for research at the Standing Stones of Callanish.
In the 1990s, following early retirement from teaching, he was a Blue Badge Tourist Guide for Hants, Wilts and Dorset. He is the author or co-author of over 20 books, many of them published under his own imprints, and mostly on the history of Hampshire communities.
He is also a keen photographer and an experienced and popular speaker at many local societies. Topics include local history, wild flowers, stone circles and foreign travels.
CALANAIS VISITOR CENTRE: https://calanais.org/
00:00 - Introduction
01:15 - “What is your connection to Clanais?”
03:04 - Enveloped in peat
04:24 - Brief fame
04:55 - Stone 19
05:55 - Stone 33a
08:16 - ‘The Ridge of the One Stone’
10:16 - The Lunar Standstill
12:35 - Calanais XI
14:04 - Alignments at the site?
15:49 - Controversy and local politics
17:13 - Rounding up & Goodbyes
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