By William Gowland, FSA. FIC. 45 















All the evidence we have, apart from the doubtful attributions 
Z of legendary lore, leads, I think irresistibly to the conclusion that 
it was not a sepulchre, but a place of sanctity dedicated to the 
_ observation or adoration of the sun. 
If on the morning of Midsummer Day we stand in the middle 
of the horseshoe curve in which the trilithons are arranged, a point 
once marked by the aperture between the two piers of the central 
and greatest of them, and look in the direction of the “ hele” stone, 
_ the sun will be seen to rise approximately over the summit of that 
monolith. 
This can‘hardly be accidental. It is, in fact, impossible to con- 
- ceive that the arrangement of the trilithons in an open curve, with 
its opening directed eastwards, and more especially that the position 
of the central trilithon and altar stone in relation to the “hele” 
stone and the avenue, can have been the result of mere chance. 
If not the result of chance, this disposition of the stones must 
_ A somewhat parallel case is afforded us in the surviving form of 
sun-worship in Japan. 
There on the seashore at Fiita-mi-ga-ura, the orientation of the 
shrine of adoration is given by two gigantic rocks which rise from 
the sea as natural pillars. The sun as it rises over the mountains 
ut made of wood, placed immediately behind the altar. This 
presentative of the trilithon is of very remote date in Japan, 
has been in use there as the a bimes = connection 
