The Bluestone Enigma
September 7, 2008 - 1:09 am
I’m not convinced by the theory that the Stonehenge bluestones arrived on Salisbury Plain through the process of glaciation, but I was fascinated to read the following, which was kindly sent in by Brian John, while there are accompanying photos on this link. I’d heard of the attempt to drag a bluestone from southwest Wales to Stonehenge in 2000, but I knew very little about it, so I’m grateful for the information and I’m also grateful to Brian for sharing it. We like to think that Eternal Idol provides original information and genuine food for thought on Stonehenge, so there’s no doubt that what Brian’s written and sent in falls into this category. Here, without further ado, is Brian’s contribution:
This is an extract from Brian John’s forthcoming book called “The Bluestone Enigma” — due in October 2008. Brian was a Board member of Menter Preseli, which organized the Project, and he also took part in the stone pull.
THE MILLENNIUM STONE FIASCO
(How not to take a bluestone from Preseli to Stonehenge)
In the year 2000 at least one hundred thousand pounds were spent on the Millennium Stone Project in Pembrokeshire, in which it was planned to transport a single block of bluestone from near Mynachlogddu (the closest village to Carn Meini) to Stonehenge, using the techniques on land and over water that might have been familiar to Neolithic tribal groups. The organizers (a community development initiative called Menter Preseli) claimed that the objectives were to celebrate the millennium, to focus on community engagement and to raise the profile of Pembrokeshire. However, it was inevitable that the media, and Stonehenge watchers generally, saw it as a fascinating archaeological experiment.
In April 2000, project organizer Philip Bowen and geologist Sid Howells found a “perfect bluestone” lying conveniently in a farmer’s field near Mynachlog-ddu, close to the road and some distance from its natural outcrop in the Preseli Hills. It was about the right size, and was long, slender and slightly bulbous at one end. Its estimated weight was 3 tonnes. The initial plan was to move the stone on wooden rollers — but as the project relied on using volunteers that was vetoed for health and safety reasons. It was a London engineer, Nick Price, who came up with the idea of using a large wooden sled with ropes and two 20ft long poles to use as levers. The stone would be attached to the sled with heavy duty nylon rope, and the pullers would work in pairs, using wooden bars and connecting ropes. They would not pull, but push on the crossbars at chest height, always facing forward, with the sled sliding smoothly along behind. The levers would be used to help the stone. It was estimated that 25 pullers would be adequate for most of the time, but with more drafted in for steep hill-climbs. Following a trial, it was calculated that the stone could be dragged in this fashion for about three miles in a day.
The plan was to reach the Eastern Cleddau River in a week or so, using around 30 volunteers. That was changed when it was realized that volunteers in sufficient quantity would only be available during weekends. So the pulling would be done for the most part on Saturdays and Sundays. The stone would be “parked up” and guarded during the other days of each working week. Nonetheless, the ambition was to cover the whole 240-mile journey (including the river and sea stretches) to Stonehenge in about six months, allowing for spells of bad weather and inactivity. The plan, as it evolved, was based quite closely on the suggestions of Richard Atkinson many years earlier. There would be three segments to the bluestone journey. First, an overland pull of about 17 miles. Second, a down-river journey to Milford Haven and a coastal voyage (with stopping-off points in Carmarthen, Swansea and Cardiff) up the Bristol Channel and across to Avonmouth, near Bristol. From there the huge stone was to be carried in a Third Stage, by barge along the River Avon and the Kennet and Avon canal before being dragged the final 26 miles to Stonehenge. On arrival, it would be blessed by Druids at the autumn solstice in September.
Things started to go wrong almost immediately. At 4pm on the first day of pulling the organizers stopped and realised that the distance travelled had been only one mile. “Now that was a sobering moment,” said Philip Bowen. “The major problem was that the sled didn’t move on the modern road surfaces, so we had to lay green plastic sheeting down first, which was a laborious process.” Later on, a low-friction nylon net was found to be more effective, but almost all of the pulling route had to be on 17 miles of roads and public access lanes. There was no genuine cross-country transport at all. But there was gradual progress, and great camaraderie among the pullers. The stone was affectionately christened “Elvis Preseli.”
All of the volunteers had to be listed, checked in and out, and allocated pulling days. The insurers insisted that the pullers should not dress up in their Neolithic outfits, and that they should wear gloves when pulling and pushing. Moving the stone also meant that the organizers needed back-up facilities provided by the police, fire service, council workmen, St John’s Ambulance staff, local transport companies, safety experts, divers and the armed forces.
Then there were portaloos, quad bikes, lorries and catering supplies. That all cost money. A massive logistical exercise was made even more difficult by terrible weather conditions. Although things got tough and the project fell further and further behind schedule, the enthusiasm of most the pullers (myself included!) never faltered. But pulling was very hard work. Along with the volunteers from all over the UK, people turned up to help from Europe and even from Australia. A magician called Mystic Merlin, dressed in full regalia, was in attendance for most of the pull, and did more than his fair share of strenuous pulling. But some pullers did go missing after a few days of working in the rain, and as exhaustion set in, Philip and his team found it difficult to find the numbers needed to keep the act on the road.
Then something happened which caused real frustration and anger. When the team turned up for the day of the penultimate pull near the village of Llawhaden, they found that a tribal marauding party had struck! Someone had managed to lift the stone off its sled, presumably using farm machinery. The sled itself had disappeared. The police were called, and the media loved the story. A search party was sent out, and fortunately, one of the volunteers found the sled in a nearby wood. A crane had to be hired to put the stone back on its Neolithic conveyance. When things had calmed down, the pull continued, and at last the weary warriors reached Blackpool Mill, near the head of navigation on the Eastern Cleddau River, on 29th May 2000. The first stretch of the journey had taken more than a month to complete, with five weekends of pulling.
The plan was that there should now be a rendezvous with two magnificent custom-built curraghs made by Ray Rees in Carmarthen. They would be roped together to form a sort of pontoon, and would be moved by ten experienced rowers, five on each side. Instead of mounting the stone on a platform well above the water-line (as in the 1954 Atkinson experiment) it was decided that there would be greater stability if the stone was slung beneath the water line, with the weight supported on beams across the decks of the two vessels.
At Blackpool Mill the stone (still on its sledge) was slid on rollers down into the water. That proved a very difficult task, even on a nicely sloping piece of river bank. The stone was tied up with heavy-duty webbing slings and had floats and buoys attached. The plan was that the curragh would then come up on the tide, pick up the stone and transport it downstream to Milford Haven. However, it transpired that after heavy rain the tidal currant was too strong for the curraghs to be rowed up-river, even on a rising tide, so they had to be towed by an inflatable safety boat with a powerful outboard engine. At last they were manoeuvred into position near the shore, and after many failed attempts to pick up the stone, modern technology had to be called in again. A heavy lift crane was hired to lift the stone into deeper water where the curraghs could position themselves directly over it. Then the crane got bogged down and had to be pulled out by a JCB. With the tide now falling, the curraghs had to be tied up overnight. On the next high tide the merry gang of volunteers and safety experts resumed work, and finally (with the intervention of more modern technology) managed to lift the stone off the bottom of the river and sling it between and beneath the two curraghs. On the high tide, to the accompaniment of great cheers, the stone was moved to the centre of the river and carried down-river to Milford Haven on June 3rd.
Then another catastrophe occurred when the voyage from the sheltered waters of Milford Haven commenced, with the prospect of open sea ahead. The bluestone was strapped between the two boats in its sling and seemed perfectly secure. But in awful weather conditions, and with a BBC documentary team in attendance, the rowers found it increasingly difficult to make headway, and there were thoughts of retreating back into the shelter of the waterway. Then, as the rowers encountered the swell coming in through the “heads” of the waterway a section of heavy nylon strapping snapped. The ill-fated stone slipped out of its sling and came to rest on the sea bed, in the middle of a major shipping lane. There was more national media coverage, and sections of the media referred gleefully to “the bluestone jinx.” Divers went down in 60 feet of water and eventually managed to locate the stone. Eleven days later a salvage team, all working for free, raised it to the surface with a floating crane. The stone was placed on the deck of a salvage vessel and returned to dry land in Milford Docks.
Worse was to follow. While the stone was still parked on the quayside ready for the journey out into the Celtic Sea and up the Bristol Channel, the organizers had to confront further problems. The “curragh pontoon and sling technique” was abandoned on the grounds that if it did not work in a slight swell inside Milford Haven, it would certainly not work in the open sea. A new barge was brought in, but it was found that the stone would not sit safely on its deck. Then the project insurers withdrew their backing and the project ground to a halt. In a welter of recrimination, accusations were levelled at the local authority, the organizers and even the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a massive waste of one hundred thousand pounds.
There were rumours that the real cost of the exercise was a great deal more than that, and that the Lottery was asking for its money back. In reality they never did pay more than fifty-three thousand pounds, and the rest of the funds came (in various convoluted wats) from public funds via the County Council. There was nothing more that could be done. With the funding exhausted, Menter Preseli was wound up. Long-suffering organizer Philip Bowen moved on to other work, and the stone was stranded in its safety enclosure near Milford Docks for more than two years. At long last, in January 2003, the bluestone got a new home in the National Botanic Garden of Wales. There was no Neolithic pantomime this time. Off it went on its flat-bed truck. On arrival it was blessed by a druid, and it is still there to this day.
It would be uncharitable to call the Millennium Stone Project an unmitigated disaster, since it gave people a lot of fun and kept the media gainfully employed. Some people became very angry about the perceived waste of public money — but there were other Millennium Projects that were much more futile and badly run. On balance, looking at things from a scientific standpoint, I think the money was well spent. Far from proving that the human transport theory was sound, the exercise proved to be far beyond the capacity of the organizers, even with the assistance of willing helpers, asphalted roads, and a vast array of modern machines and bits of technology. It led many people to the conclusion that the transport of one smallish 3-tonne bluestone monolith, let alone 80 or so, would have been incredibly difficult, if not impossible, around 5,000 years ago, no matter what romantic ideas some archaeologists might hold sacred.
28 Responses to “The Bluestone Enigma”
Thanks Dennis for putting this on the site — I thought it might be entertaining but there is also a very serious purpose to it, as John suggests. It would have been incredibly difficult for large numbers of stones to have been hauled and sailed all the way from Wales around 5,000 years ago — if not impossible. There was no quarry, and the bluestones are an ill-assorted collection of stones of all shapes and sizes from at least ten different places. Some of the stones were “rubbish” stones totally unsuited for use as monoliths. What we have here is a collection of glacial erratics. Why is Salisbury Plain not still covered in glacial erratics? Well, there are small ones all over the place — in the holes, in the soil layer, in the Cursus, at Woodhenge etc — as contributors to this site have shown. Sandstones, rhyolites, ashes, limestones etc in addition to dolerites. Many of the fragments are unidentified. In my view, the larger and usable erratics were in a trail (not a fan) to the west of Stonehenge. The trail was easy to follow, and the builders used the closest ones first, then the ones a bit further away, and so on and so on until they could find no more. None of the bluestone settings was ever finished. Why? As Flinders Petrie pointed out many years ago, because they simply ran out of stones……
When I read of the difficulties of transporting bluestone from Wales to Salisbury Plain, a number of things spring to mind and I’ll just leave out the pros and cons of the glaciation theory for now.
The first, obviously, is the matter of the sarsens, much bigger stones that seem to have been hauled a shorter distance, although I’ve yet to come across any definitive proof of where they actually came from. I’m inclined to think that if these massive stones were hauled from the Marlborough Downs to Salisbury Plain, then it should’ve been possible to haul much smaller stones a greater distance.
I don’t have a copy of Silence of the Lambs to hand, unfortunately, but there’s a description in there of Jame Gumb or Buffalo Bill trying to make a vest made from human skin. We’re told of the enormous difficulties in creating such a garment, especially one with Gumb’s precise requirements, because the material was prone to wrinkle or tear; what I was struck by was the description of Gumb frequently being in utter despair on account of his desperate desire to create the garment, but how he nonetheless dried his tears and persevered with his grisly, self-imposed task because his need was so great and so compelling.
I don’t doubt for a moment that transporting the stones from Wales would’ve been very difficult indeed and very trying, and I’m sure there were many failed attempts, although in all fairness, no one has yet (to my knowledge) found a bluestone that seems to have been ‘lost’ en route from Wales to Salisbury Plain. I’m assuming once more that any such stone would by definition have been lost in water or in a swamp, which would make locating it very difficult indeed today and I can’t really see how we’d realistically embark on a search for such a stone, not least because we wouldn’t know where to start looking.
Otherwise, I remember watching a series on television dealing with achievements of the ancients and there were examples such as the retractable cover that’s known to have existed on top of the Colosseum in Rome, but if memory serves me well, the ‘re-enactors’ couldn’t match the achievements of the Romans. This cover almost certainly existed because there’s one surviving fresco, so just because we can’t match the achievement today doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Likewise, I remember watching an episode dealing with Archimedes’ Claw that was said to have lifted Roman galleys from the sea, but the modern engineers couldn’t make something that lifted a small stationary fishing boat with breaking.
As I’ve written elsewhere, I’m sure that Geoffrey of Monmouth was accurate to a fantastic degree in his description of how Stonehenge was built, so it’s only fair to consider the existence of Merlin’s Engines, yet another subject I’d like to write about when I’ve got time.
Still, it’s clear that it’s far more difficult that I’d ever thought to transport a bluestone from Preseli to Stonehenge, so I’m very grateful to Brian for sharing his detailed and engrossing account with us and thereby providing much food for thought.
Agree, Dennis, that because something is demonstrably difficult, and because we find it almost impossible to do today, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen…… and I suppose that if the Neolithic Argonauts were determined enough and mad enough they might have gathered up these stones and transported them over land and sea in spite of incredible traumas and loss of life. But 5,000 years ago?!! That has to be the latest date we are talking about now, if the Boles Barrow and Cursus bluestone finds are to be believed. That’s very early indeed, in terms of both tribal organization and technical skills — and too early to think of a trading motive tied to mineral ores or copper or bronze or gold. And I’ve been looking again at the geological info on the bluestones. They have come from AT LEAST FIFTEEN different places — sorry folks, but it is inconceivable that our Neolithic ancestors would have wandered all over West and South Wales picking up this ill-assorted and random collection of stones (including quite a few “rubbish stones” like ashes etc), of all shapes and sizes, just to stick them into a megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain. It just doesn’t make sense. The Stonehenge builders were sensible people — sensible enough to pick up all the erratics they could find on an erratic train that ran westwards. And when they were gone, they were gone. That’s why none of the stone settings was ever finished.
The following links present both cases:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba45/ba45int.html
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba47/ba47lets.html
It would seem the builders of Stanton Drew were beaten to the Bluestones by those of Stonehenge (there is no evidence to date Stanton Drew to after than Stonehenge) even though Stanton Drew would have been far closer to the edge of the ice sheet if it extended only as far as Bath.
Perhaps the answer lies in part with this site (which I have quoted before)
http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~lbull/stanton.html
It proposes a West to East cultural spread with Somerset influencing (Stanton Drew) having influencing both Avebury and Stonehenge. Perhaps this could be the reason why there was a Bluestone in “Boles Barrow”.
Mike Pitts looks into this in detail on pages 198 – 204 of Hengeworld.
Dennis
And your view is?
Rgds
John
On balance, I think that as the builders of Stonehenge managed to transport huge sarsens over a short distance, then they’d have previously found a way to transport much smaller bluestones a longer distance. That’s it in a nutshell, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.
My mind’s been opened more by learning that cattle were brought to Stonehenge from as far away as Wales when Stonehenge was under construction. As Pete’s pointed out, it’s hard to imagine that these creatures weren’t used to drag stones in some way, which puts a slightly different complexion on the problems with transporting the stones, to my mind. (See first comment and link on “Life’s A Drag”).
Hang on Dennis! Two teeth?!! And provenance unknown. That’s not much on which to base a theory of ox-teams hauling bluestones from Wales……. that’s almost like the splendid tabloid journalism today about the Welsh Neolithic drovers all converging on Stonehenge in order to enjoy their barbequed steaks! It makes a nice story, but it’s not exactly scientific! Latest theory — never mind about healing and ancestor worship — Stonehenge was a place of wild BBQ parties under the stars, enjoyed by all the drovers and cowboys from the wild west………
Re the nice picture of Bedd Arthur which (for some reason) you put at the top of this string, Dennis, you might be amused by the following extract from the OU press release just put out, flagging up the Timewatch prog on the Darvill \ Wainwright dig, due for transmission on 27 Sept. There we are — I’ve given them a nice plug!
Quote: Re the bluestones: “Darvill and Wainwright have traced them back to the exact spot in the Presellis in the far West of the principality. A huge outcrop of bluestones dominates this wild and beautiful landscape. Overlooking them is a bluestone circle which is virtually an exact replica of the circle at Stonehenge. And surrounding them is a collection of springs that have ancient healing properties. Neolithic inscriptions are marked on the bluestones nearby. One of them is marked with the ancient Welsh name for “cough”.
The sweet little oval of Bedd Arthur doesn’t look much like Stonehenge to me….. and the rest of this statement is total rubbish too. This is NOT the exact spot where the bluestones came from. Carn Meini does not dominate the landscape. Bedd Arthur does not overlook Carn Meini. There is no circle of springs with ancient healing properties. There are no Neolithic inscriptions and there is nothing marked “Beswch.” This nonsense must have gone out with the approval of Profs W and D — do you wonder why I have a rather jaundiced view of senior archaeologists?
The picture’s there because it looks nice and it was the best I could find at short notice, but if you have another that you’d prefer for a heading for your reproduced article, then please by all means send it in and I’ll get the art department onto it asap.
Other than that, I’ve long been wondering about this business of Neolithic inscriptions, because I was unaware that there was any such thing, not least because the use of the term ‘inscription’ specifically implies writing as opposed to engravings or artwork. Anyway, I’m not sure if we’ve got the same ones in mind for the same reason, but rest assured that you’re not the only one with a jaundiced view of certain senior archaeologists.
No no — leave the picture there, Dennis. It’s a nice one, and it shows some bluestones that are not made of spotted dolerite!
D + W show a picture of the so-called inscription in one of their papers. They say it is a rock carving of an “eye” symbol — curving top and a hole or pit below it. I have hunted high and low for it, and am convinced it doesn’t exist. All the rock surfaces are very rough on Craig Talfynydd — mostly ignimbrites. I think the “carving” was just a trick of light and shadow, with a fair dose of wishful thinking added.
Well, I can’t really comment on this eye carving as I’ve not seen it, but I can’t help thinking that they’ve made a rod for their own backs by talking about a Neolithic inscription. I’m perfectly prepared to accept that a carving can be equated with an ideograph and/or a hierolgyph and that by extension you can reasonably talk about an inscription, in the sense that a carving or series of carvings can be interpreted as a message of sorts. However, when most people think of an inscription, they think of writing as opposed to pictures or a single picture, so I think that to talk of Neolithic inscriptions is to have to deliver the goods in some style at a later date.
It may be that these gentlemen can indeed do so, so I’m going to suspend judgment until I sit down and watch their Timewatch special – not long now.
I was interested to see Mike Pitts on the Smithsonian site as saying that Darvill and Wainwright are out with the fairies on this one. Ah, the Neolithic tribes are sharpening their knives…… can we expect to see human sacrifices before too long?
Got a comment from a colleague in Canada re the ailments of the dead people, to the effect that most people have something wrong with them when they die. Otherwise they would still be alive. An old friend of my father’s, when told of a friend’s death, asked “Oh dear, and what did he die of?” To which he got the reply: “Oh, nothing serious.”
Have you got a link for this Smithsonian/Pitts quote? When this ‘Lourdes’ theory was first aired, I remember seeing a comment that was put up immediately afterwards saying something to the effect of ‘people generally tend to be unwell when they die’, but there’s also a study on the BBC site that I’m trying to find that said how one in fourteen people in Neolithic Britain died of violent causes. This is really worth a post all by itself for obvious reasons.
here we go:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/light-on-stonehenge.html?c=y&page=4
Quite a good write-up by Dan Jones from Brighton — for a change, a journalist who does at least bring a critical eye to the issue.
Those bluestone flakes……….
From one of the multitude of reports in the media arising out of the D & W press conference in London:
“As evidence, Darvill said his dig had uncovered masses of fragments carved out of the bluestones by people to create amulets. Any rock carried around in such a way would have had some sort of protective or healing property, he said. He said that theory was backed by burials in southwest England where the stones were interred with their owners.”
One thing occurs to me — if these fragments were so valuable as amulets or talismen, why were so many of them left behind in a great litter all over the site? Surely, if the fragments were revered or valuable, they would have been chipped off the monoliths one by one and taken away immediately as prized possessions.
Or was there a sort of supermarket there, with some guys chipping away madly so as to accumulate a great stock of flakes, which they never managed to shift? The first example of a supermarket overstock?
I come back to my idea that Stonehenge was at various times an axe factory, with hand axes made on the site from either existing bluestone monoliths or from smaller bluestone boulders which were among the collection of erratics. The flakes are simply debris left behind.
A colleague has just come back to me with another idea — he thinks the flakes look like the flakes created when arrow-heads are made. Are there any records of arrow-heads made of bluestone? Would it even be suitable?
Now there’s a thought — maybe the Stonehenge entrepreneurs were flogging bits of bluestone for use as magic arrow-heads, guaranteed to hit their targets?
If there are any bluestone buffs out there who are still interested in all this stuff, I have just posted 6 nice pics of places where the bluestones have come from, according to the geologists. It’s here:
http://www.brianjohn.f2s.com/enigma5.html
I’ll build up the gallery bit by bit, until I have all 15 locations portrayed!!
Brian, not only are you more than welcome to post up information on the bluestones, but I’m sure anyone with a remotely serious interest in the subject is very grateful to you, as am I. It’s all fascinating stuff and it’s a detailed insight into a particular aspect of Stonehenge, so as far as I’m concerned, this site is the richer for it all and everyone profits. Thank you!
Brian,
do you do tours for impoverished bloggers?
Thanks Dennis. We all learn a lot from respectful and creative exchanges on topics like this. I’ve learnt a great deal from your site — so thanks for that!
Tours up in the hills? Always up for a nice walk in the mountains…….
With the blockbuster about to hit us all between the eyes, maybe a Healing Stones thread would be an idea, Dennis? A bit difficult to keep a track of the various threads that are touching on this theme. Maybe you could start it with a review of the programme?
Yes, I’ll certainly be writing a post about the programme on Saturday night at some point, so it makes sense for people to be able to comment on what Professors Darvill and Wainwright present to us. Pete and I may well take you up on your offer of a tour at some point and I’m very pleased indeed if you’ve learned anything from this site, because I’ve certainly learned a great deal from what you’ve had to tell us.
Interesting piece of scurrilous gossip — a little bird told me that Julian Richards was on Radio Wales the other morning talking about Profs W and D, and said that the two professors were “out with the fairies” on the healing stones / healing springs stuff. Couldn’t have put it better myself. I do believe Mike Pitts used the same expression the other day too.
Could it be that the natives are beginning to wonder where the chieftains are leading them, and are beginning to have serious doubts about what they are doing for the image of the profession? Perhaps we might even get a return to real science at some stage?
Hmm, I wish I could repeat a bare fraction of the scurrilous gossip that’s come my way, and not about Profs W and D, either. It’s gone out of fashion now, but I lost count of how many times I heard Stonehenge described by others as a ‘ritual meeting place’, a description that’s so completely inane that it leaves me wide-eyed with disbelief. There are some archaeologists for whom I have the very greatest admiration, but it ill behoves many of them to ‘cast the first stone’ as far as the Healing Stones notion is concerned, either because they’ve come up with some far-fetched notions themselves or because they’ve very carefully sat on the fence for years. Anyway, we’ll see what Timewatch has to tell us on Saturday…
Dennis and other friends —
Please excuse the blatant commercialism, but I might as well mention that my book called “THE BLUESTONE ENIGMA: Stonehenge, Preseli and the Ice Age” is now out, price 9.95. I can supply by post for 11.00 including P+P.
Publisher: Greencroft Books
ISBN: 978-0-905559-89-6
Further info (including details of how to order) on the website here:
http://www.brianjohn.f2s.com/enigma1.html
Members of the archaeological establishment will not like it, but I hope others will……
Sorry folks — need to correct that. Following the steep rise in postal costs, the price including P+P is now ??11.50. Still remarkable value…..
Care to comment?
What this does illustrate is the problems encountered in moving the really big sarsens weighing tens of tons would have been (perhaps exponentially) multiplied. I feel even the relative short distance of 20 miles would probably be an insurmountable project nowadays without trained and committed labour (clearly lacking from the Bluestone project).
Also it is most unlikely moving stones was an instant success? Failures must have been part of the learning process (leading to Merlin’s engines?) which eventually provided the solution seen at Stonehenge.
As for the glacieration theory is there any evidence of Bluestones lying around in southern England now? Unless they were all diligently collected by the builders of Stonehenge then surely there would still be some remnants?.