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Stone Temple Gardening
Where Land Meets Sky
Landscape First, Monument Second
Stone Temple Gardening explores ancient monuments through the landscapes that shaped them.
Since my teenage years I have been drawn to prehistoric sites, from famous monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury to obscure standing stones, hidden burial chambers, ridges, rivers, outcrops and forgotten paths. My work begins with a simple idea: the land comes first. Routes, horizons, natural features and movement through place often shaped how monuments were built, used and remembered.
I am a historian by training, not an archaeologist, which gives this project its particular voice. Stone Temple Gardening combines field observation, photography, archaeoastronomy, folklore, sensory experience and careful speculation to ask how ancient people may have encountered the living landscape before stone made those encounters permanent.
All My Stories
All My Stories
Robin Hood’s Stride, Peak District: A Prehistoric Ridge from Stanton Moor to the Grey Ladies
A walk from Stanton Moor to Robin Hood’s Stride reveals a prehistoric ridge shaped by movement, rock art and natural landmarks. From the Cork Stone through Rowtor Rocks and Cratcliffe to the Grey Ladies stone circle, this is not just a route but a sequence of encounters where monuments respond to the land.
Apr 1211 min read
Arbor Low Stone Circle: The Stonehenge of the North in the Peak District
Arbor Low is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Peak District, often described as the “Stonehenge of the North”. This remarkable monument combines a stone circle, henge earthwork and nearby Bronze Age barrows within a wider ceremonial landscape. Set on a high limestone plateau, its location, horizons and surrounding features suggest that movement, visibility and place were central to its meaning. This article explores Arbor Low not as an isolated monument, but
Mar 2219 min read
Gua Tambun Rock Art: Prehistoric Paintings in the Karst Landscape of Ipoh, Malaysia
High above the Kinta Valley near Ipoh lies Gua Tambun, one of Southeast Asia’s most important prehistoric rock art sites. Painted in red pigment on a limestone cliff, hundreds of figures mark a landscape shaped by tropical rain, jungle growth, and ancient karst geology. This article explores the paintings, their setting, and the human instinct to recognise meaning in stone.
Mar 812 min read
Belas Knap Long Barrow: A Cotswold–Severn Neolithic Tomb in Gloucestershire
Discover Belas Knap Long Barrow in Gloucestershire, a Neolithic chambered tomb known for its horned forecourt, false entrance, and multiple burial chambers. A detailed archaeological and landscape exploration from Stone Temple Gardening.
Feb 2114 min read
Mitchell’s Fold: A Stone Circle Between Hill and Horizon
Set on a saddle of high ground between Corndon Hill and Stapeley Hill, Mitchell’s Fold is a stone circle shaped as much by movement and approach as by placement. This essay explores its archaeology, landscape setting, surrounding monuments, and later folklore, asking how meaning persists when prehistoric purpose fades and stone becomes story.
Feb 113 min read
The Dolmen of Llech-y-Drybedd: Reading Stone, Serpent, and Sky in the Preseli Landscape.
Llech y Drybedd is often described as a dolmen, but its power lies less in classification than in how it is encountered. This essay explores form, landscape, and perception, asking how prehistoric monuments emerge from their settings and continue to act upon the body, the eye, and the imagination.
Jan 1114 min read
Stone Temple Gardening — A Few Words at the End of 2025
Stone Temple Gardening began quietly in 2024, as a way of keeping notes while walking ancient ground — a place to think out loud,to integrate a lifetime of observation and reading on prehistory, and to share insights that didn’t fit easily elsewhere. It was never intended as a statement or a system. Over time, and largely thanks to those who returned to read, it became something more shared.
Dec 28, 20257 min read
Stonehenge Deciphered: A Critical Reading of Geometry, Landscape, and Intention by Alun G. Rees (2025)
Stonehenge Deciphered refuses to treat the monument as a static ruin. Rees writes against the desiccated style that bleaches prehistory into typologies and footnotes, restoring the lives behind the stones — the journeys, offerings, and ambitions that shaped Salisbury Plain. His portraits of figures such as the Winterbourne Chieftain or the Bush Barrow warrior transform archaeological traces into moving human stories, granting Stonehenge back its breath.
Dec 14, 202512 min read
Pentre Ifan & the Preseli Bluestones: Exploring Wales’ Ancient Dolmens, Myth & the Bluestones of Stonehenge.
Explore Pentre Ifan, the iconic Neolithic portal tomb of the Preseli Hills. Thought to date to around 3500 BC, its massive capstone stands poised above three upright stones, overlooking the landscape where Stonehenge’s bluestones began their journey.
Nov 13, 202513 min read
Between Worlds: Samhain, Halloween, and the Shadow of the Sun.
As autumn’s light fades, At the Gates of Winter explores the ancient roots of Samhain and Halloween — from the stone circles of Avebury and Grange to Ireland’s sacred mounds where the sun once set between worlds. Discover how Neolithic alignments, Celtic fire festivals, and modern traditions still mark our timeless dialogue between darkness and renewal.
Oct 31, 202510 min read
Discovering Gors Fawr Stone Circle and My Find of a Possible New Ancient Polissoir Stone
Explore the sacred landscape of the Preseli Hills — birthplace of Stonehenge’s bluestones and home to the enigmatic Gors Fawr stone circle. Join Dr Alexander Peach as he revisits this ancient site after twenty years to uncover new insights into its alignments, mythology, and a hidden polissoir stone. Discover how craft, cosmology, and landscape converged in Neolithic Wales to shape one of Britain’s most profound ceremonial landscapes.
Oct 26, 202516 min read
Stones on the Move: The Ritual Pathways of Avebury’s Three Stone Avenues.
Avebury is not just about the stones, but also about movement through them. From the Avebury henge three great avenues once led outward: West Kennet to the Sanctuary, Beckhampton into watery lowlands, Silbury toward Europe’s largest Neolithic mound. These paths shaped sight lines, ritual, and myth — a choreography of stone and story that still carries us through the landscape. Join me in exploring the archaeology and stories of these mysterious processional routes.
Oct 6, 202514 min read
Exploring Anglesey’s Neolithic Secrets: The Sun Stone and Other Faces at Bryn Celli Ddu
Explore Anglesey’s Neolithic secrets at Bryn Celli Ddu, the Sun Stone, and other stone faces. Discover how solstice alignments, quartz-veined monoliths, and carved pebbles reveal the spiritual, mythic, and cosmological world of Neolithic builders. Journey through sacred landscapes where archaeology meets intuition, uncovering the hidden symbolism and animist practices that shaped ancient Anglesey.
Sep 7, 202512 min read
Bryn Celli Ddu Solstice 2025 Part 5: Unearthing the Bear Shaped Capstone at Lligwy Neolithic Burial Chamber in the Sacred Landscape of Anglesey.
Unearthing the Bear of Lligwy: A Neolithic Discovery in Anglesey
At Lligwy burial chamber on the island of Anglesey, Wales, a striking new observation has been made: the great capstone that crowns this Neolithic tomb bears the unmistakable outline of a bear. First recorded by researcher and writer Alexander Peach, this discovery adds a fresh dimension to our understanding of Neolithic symbolism and ritual life.
Aug 30, 202513 min read
Unearthing the Ancient: Sacred Blueschist and Quartz the Geological and Mythic Heart of Bryn Celli Ddu Anglesey.
Bryn Celli Ddu, the celebrated Neolithic passage tomb on Anglesey, is more than just a prehistoric monument. It is a carefully constructed temple where stone, light, and story converge. In this exploration of the site’s geology and mythic significance, we focus on a remarkable material rarely discussed in detail—quartz-veined blueschist, a stone found only in a narrow band across Anglesey and central to the sacred design of Bryn Celli Ddu.
The Neolithic builders chose this ra
Aug 23, 20258 min read
Has a Lost Stone Circle Been Found at Bryn Celli Ddu? Exciting New Discoveries in Wales
A new excavation just beyond Bryn Celli Ddu has revealed tantalising evidence of a lost stone circle. Join me on the ridge at Tyddyn Bach, where archaeologists uncovered a buried monolith and a possible ring ditch — findings that may reshape our understanding of Anglesey’s sacred landscape. In this post, I document the dig, explore the myths, and reflect on how ancient imagination still echoes in stone.
Jul 15, 202519 min read
Stone, Sun, and Spirit: My Summer Solstice Journey to Bryn Celli Ddu
Experience the 2025 summer solstice at Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey’s most iconic Neolithic tomb. In this richly illustrated post, Alexander Peach returns to witness the sunrise light enter the chamber, illuminating a quartz-veined stone and casting an axe-shaped beam. Explore the sacred landscape, solar alignments, and new archaeological insights into the Gorsedd, Sun Stone, and Tyddyn Bach. A powerful blend of myth, history, and first-hand observation.
Jul 6, 202515 min read
The Rollright Stones: Sacred Site and Megalithic Mystery in the Heart of England
Discovering the Rollright Stones: Ritual, Myth, and Memory on the Cotswold Ridge
Nestled on the windswept boundary of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, the Rollright Stones form one of Britain's most evocative prehistoric landscapes—a sacred triad of monuments steeped in mystery, myth, and millennia-old memory. In this richly detailed blog post, we explore the King’s Men stone circle, the solitary King Stone, and the ancient dolmen known as the Whispering Knights.
Jun 24, 202511 min read
Unveiling Gunung Padang: Indonesia’s Ancient Stepped Pyramid and Sacred Sundanese Marvel
Nestled in the volcanic highlands of West Java, Indonesia, Gunung Padang is one of Southeast Asia's most fascinating archaeological sites. Rising 885 metres above sea level atop an extinct volcano, it is at the center of an acrimonious archaeological debate about hidden subterranean chambers and over its contested dates of construction, some as old as 27,000 to 14,000 years ago. Gunung Padang weaves together geology, culture, spirituality and controversy into an amazing story
May 27, 202522 min read
Unveiling the Cosmic Mysteries of Bryn Celli Ddu: Explore the Celestial Secrets of the Neolithic Solstice Sun
Exploration of Ancient astronomy at Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey, Wales, UK
Apr 4, 202531 min read
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