Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

, Mount Killaraus () is a

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

ary place in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

where

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

originally stood. According to the narrative presented in

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...

's ''

Historia Regum Britanniae (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a fictitious account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings o ...

'', King

Ambrosius Aurelianus Ambrosius Aurelianus (; Anglicised as Ambrose Aurelian and called Aurelius Ambrosius in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and elsewhere) was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th c ...

embarks on a quest to construct a memorial for the

Celtic Britons The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, ...

who were treacherously slain by

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

. When conventional methods fail to produce an awe-inspiring monument, Ambrosius turns to the renowned wizard

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

for guidance. In response, Merlin advises the king to transport a

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

known as the Giant's Ring from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, attributing magical and healing properties to these stones, which were believed to have been brought from Africa by giants. This prompts

Uther Pendragon Uther Pendragon ( ; the Brittonic languages, Brittonic name; , or ), also known as King Uther (or Uter), was a List of legendary kings of Britain, legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur. A few minor references to Uther appe ...

to lead an expedition to Ireland, where a battle against the Irish king Gillomanius ensues, resulting in the successful retrieval of the stones with Merlin's magical assistance. While the story itself is fictional, archaeological research by Mike Parker Pearson suggests intriguing connections between Stonehenge and the Waun Mawn stone circle in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, indicating the potential for a historical basis within the legendary narrative.

Merlin legend

The first record of the Merlin story is in

's 12th century ''

'' ('History of the Kings of Britain'). It tells how king Aurelius Ambrosius sought to build a memorial to the

who were treacherously slain by

. When his carpenters and masons cannot come up with a suitably awe-inspiring monument, Ambrosius asks the wizard

for advice. Merlin tells the king to transport a

called the Giant's Ring from Mount Killaraus in Ireland. He says they are magical healing stones that had been brought from Africa by giants.

sails to Ireland with 15,000 men to retrieve the stones. The Irish king Gillomanius marches against them with a large army, but is defeated. With Merlin's help, the Britons transport the stones to Britain and set them up as they had originally stood.

Possible original

Hill of Uisneach, Ireland

The name ''mons Killaraus'' could mean the "hill of Killare" and thus may refer to the Hill of Uisneach. This is an ancient ceremonial site with numerous prehistoric monuments, which was seen as the sacred centre of Ireland.

Waun Mawn circle, Wales

Many of Stonehenge's original

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

s have been traced to quarries in the Preseli Hills, in west

. Although the Merlin tale is fiction, archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that there may be a "tiny grain of truth" in it. Pearson's team of archaeologists found evidence suggesting that most of the Waun Mawn stone circle in the Preseli Hills was taken down and brought to

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but st ...

, where it became the first phase of Stonehenge.

References

{{Stonehenge Locations associated with Arthurian legend British folklore Stonehenge Places in Celtic mythology Killaraus