Was Stonehenge originally built in Wales? Archaeologists unearth remains of Britain's third largest stone circle and claim it was 'dismantled and MOVED to Wiltshire'

• Archaeologists have unearthed Britain's third largest stone circle in Wales
• They believe it was dismantled and rebuilt as the first stage of Stonehenge
• It has an identical diameter to the ditch surrounding Stonehenge, they found 
• Waun Mawn is close to the quarries the Stonehenge bluestones were made from

Stonehenge was originally built in Wales, before the stone circle was dismantled and rebuilt 175 miles away in Wiltshire, researchers claim.

It is already established that the 5,000-year-old monument in Salisbury contains bluestones brought from a Welsh hillside.

However, new research suggests that they were recycled from a dismantled circle called Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. Analysis of Waun Mawn reveals that it may be the oldest known stone circle in Britain, dating from about 3400BC, and that it was also one of the largest, with up to 50 standing stones.   

University of St Andrews experts uncovered the remains of Waun Mawn while filming for an upcoming BBC documentary, fronted by Professor Alice Roberts, who quipped that the discovery suggests Stonehenge 'is a second-hand monument'. 

If it were still intact today, the Waun Mawn stone circle would be the third largest in Britain after Avebury in Wiltshire and Stanton Drew in Somerset.

+12

Analysis of Waun Mawn reveals that it may be the oldest known stone circle in Britain, dating from about 3400BC, and that it was also one of the largest, with up to 50 standing stones. The remaining stones are circled 

+12

The Welsh circle has a diameter of 360ft (110m), the same as the ditch that encloses Stonehenge. Both are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise

+12

Archaeological investigations as part of the 'Stones of Stonehenge' research project, led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London, previously excavated two bluestone quarries in the Preseli Hills

LINKS BETWEEN STONEHENGE AND WAUN MAWN 

There were significant links between the neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Waun Mawn that led researchers to conclude a link between them.

The Welsh site was likely disassembled, moved to Wiltshire and used in the building of Stonehenge. 

The Welsh circle has a diameter of 360ft (110m), the same as the ditch that encloses Stonehenge.

Both are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise.

Several of the monoliths at the World Heritage Site on Salisbury Plain are of the same rock type as those that still remain at the Welsh site.

And one of the bluestones at Stonehenge has an unusual cross-section which matches one of the holes left at Waun Mawn.

This suggests the monolith began its life as part of the stone circle in the Preseli Hills before being moved.The long-dismantled stone circle was found in the area where the smaller 'bluestones' found at Stonehenge are known to have come from. 

The team behind the discovery said there are key elements linking Stonehenge to the Welsh monument, one of the biggest stone circles ever found in Britain.

They suggest its bluestones could have been moved as the ancient people of the Preseli region migrated, even taking their monuments with them, as a sign of their ancestral identity, and re-erecting them at Stonehenge, 175 miles away.

And it could explain why the bluestones, thought to be the first monoliths erected at Stonehenge, were brought from so far away, while most circles are constructed within a short distance of their quarries, the experts said.

Archaeological investigations as part of the 'Stones of Stonehenge' research project, led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London, previously excavated two bluestone quarries in the Preseli Hills. 

The team used a technique called optically-stimulated luminescence dating to determine the age of the Welsh stone circles.

One of the empty stone sockets at Waun Mawn has an unusual cross-section which matches one of the bluestones at Stonehenge, and chippings in that hole are of the same rock type as the Stonehenge stone, said Dr Kinnaird study co-author.

Researchers were able to date the soils that infill the dismantled stone sockets with surprising results and found the stones were removed immediately prior to the known date of construction of Stonehenge 1 - at around 3000 BC.  

'It is the hidden information preserved in the soils that provides the chronology for the construction,' said Kinnaird.

They then looked at the dismantlement of the Waun Mawn stone circle and its date - which happened just before similar stones were put up at Stonehenge. 

+12

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient stone circle in Wales which they believe could have been dismantled and rebuilt as Stonehenge

+12

University of St Andrews experts uncovered the remains of Waun Mawn while filming for an upcoming BBC documentary, fronted by Professor Alice Roberts (pictured), who quipped that the discovery suggests Stonehenge 'is a second-hand monument'

+12

They suggest its bluestones could have been moved as the ancient people of the Preseli region migrated, even taking their monuments with them, as a sign of their ancestral identity, and re-erecting them at Stonehenge, 175 miles away

Professor Roberts' show, Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed, follows archaeologists over years of digs and a decade of research.

She said throughout the efforts the archaeologists 'were always up against it' and that they suffered a terrible time trying to find evidence of a stone circle. 

'They were almost on the brink of giving up and then they looked at this particular place called Waun Mawn,' said Roberts.

The site had previously been described as 'doubtful and insignificant' by previous research teams, so it was a last ditch effort after years of failure.But 'they decided that they were going to dig anyway and just see if they can find anything, and they found these ghosts of stone holes,' said Roberts.

She added: 'And they were exactly the same diameter as the outer circle at Stonehenge. It's just unbelievable stuff, unbelievable archaeology.'

Their discovery that the bluestones had been extracted before the first stage of Stonehenge was built prompted the team to re-investigate the nearby Waun Mawn stones to see if it was the site of a stone circle supplied by the quarry and moved.

+12

The 5,000-year-old monument in Salisbury, Wiltshire (pictured), contains bluestones brought from a Welsh hillside and new research suggests an existing monument may have been recycled from a dismantled circle called Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills

+12

Scottish researchers believe the first phase of Stonehenge - built around 3100 BC with bluestone - was made using stones taken from the Waun Mawn circle

+12

One of the empty stone sockets at Waun Mawn has an unusual cross-section which matches one of the bluestones at Stonehenge, and chippings in that hole are of the same rock type as the Stonehenge stone, said Dr Kinnaird study co-author

Only four monoliths remain at the site, but an archaeological dig in 2018 revealed holes where stones would have stood, showing the remaining stones are part of a wider circle of 30-50 stones.

The research also found that Waun Mawn has an identical diameter to the ditch surrounding Stonehenge, of 360 feet, and that it is also aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise. 

'This led us to conclude that Waun Mawn was likely dismantled and became the source of many of the bluestones used at Stonehenge,' said Kinnaird. 

Findings of the discovery, published in the journal Antiquity, show significant links between Stonehenge and Waun Mawn. 

+12

Only four monoliths remain at the site, but an archaeological dig in 2018 revealed holes where stones would have stood, showing the remaining stones are part of a wider circle of 30-50 stones

Waun Mawn is the third biggest stone circle in Britain and one of the earliest, and confirms that the region was an important and densely settled area in Neolithic times until 3000 BC when activity seems to have ceased.

Prof Parker Pearson said: 'It's as if they just vanished. Maybe most of the people migrated, taking their stones - their ancestral identities - with them.'

Analysis of the remains of people buried at Stonehenge at the time the bluestones were erected there would seem to back up the theory, as it shows some of them were from western Britain, possibly Wales.

With only a few of the Stonehenge stones directly linked to Waun Mawn, the archaeologists also believe monoliths from other stone circles could have been taken from Wales to form part of the new monument.Parker Pearson said: 'With an estimated 80 bluestones put up on Salisbury Plain at Stonehenge and nearby Bluestonehenge, my guess is that Waun Mawn was not the only stone circle that contributed to Stonehenge.

'Maybe there are more in Preseli waiting to be found. Who knows? Someone will be lucky enough to find them.'

Archaeologists used 3D scanning techniques, traditional field archaeology, and laboratory analysis to discover when and where the stones for Stonehenge were quarried and where they first stood. 

Prof Roberts said: 'There were some days when they (the archaeologists) all went home tearing their hair out.

+12

Experts believe that "they may have recovered the true origins of Britain's most famous monument". Details are being revealed on a BBC documentary presented by Professor Alice Roberts (pictured) on February 11

+12

Professor Alice Roberts and Mike Parker Pearson will appear on the new BBC Two documentary to reveal details of the Welsh stone circle that led to Stonehenge

'So many programmes about discoveries on television are filmed after the discovery... (with) sometimes a bit of drama reconstruction to try and capture the excitement of the dig.

'But this production company... were so convinced that Mike Parker Pearson was going to find something exciting.

'So they've been following his story and him and his team on this trail for nearly 10 years. That's in the programme.

'For a long time, it honestly didn't look as though they were going to find anything...

'But to end up with this astonishing breakthrough and to have a production company there filming the whole thing over the years is just amazing.' 

Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed will be broadcast on BBC Two at 9pm on Friday February 12.

The findings have been published in the journal Antiquity. 

The Stonehenge monument standing today was the final stage of a four part building project that ended 3,500 years ago

Stonehenge is one of the most prominent prehistoric monuments in Britain. The Stonehenge that can be seen today is the final stage that was completed about 3,500 years ago. 

According to the monument's website, Stonehenge was built in four stages:   

First stage: The first version of Stonehenge was a large earthwork or Henge, comprising a ditch, bank and the Aubrey holes, all probably built around 3100 BC. 

The Aubrey  holes are round pits in the chalk, about one metre (3.3 feet) wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms. 

They form a circle about 86.6 metres (284 feet) in diameter. 

Excavations revealed cremated human bones in some of the chalk filling, but the holes themselves were likely not made to be used as graves, but as part of a religious ceremony.

After this first stage, Stonehenge was abandoned and left untouched for more than 1,000 years. 

Second stage: The second and most dramatic stage of Stonehenge started around 2150 years BC, when about 82 bluestones from the Preseli mountains in south-west Wales were transported to the site. It's thought that the stones, some of which weigh four tonnes each, were dragged on rollers and sledges to the waters at Milford Haven, where they were loaded onto rafts.

They were carried on water along the south coast of Wales and up the rivers Avon and Frome, before being dragged overland again near Warminster and Wiltshire.

The final stage of the journey was mainly by water, down the river Wylye to Salisbury, then the Salisbury Avon to west Amesbury. 

The journey spanned nearly 240 miles, and once at the site, the stones were set up in the centre to form an incomplete double circle. 

During the same period, the original entrance was widened and a pair of Heel Stones were erected. The nearer part of the Avenue, connecting Stonehenge with the River Avon, was built aligned with the midsummer sunrise. 

Third stage: The third stage of Stonehenge, which took place about 2000 years BC, saw the arrival of the sarsen stones (a type of sandstone), which were larger than the bluestones.

They were likely brought from the Marlborough Downs (40 kilometres, or 25 miles, north of Stonehenge). 

The largest of the sarsen stones transported to Stonehenge weighs 50 tonnes, and transportation by water would not have been possible, so it's suspected that they were transported using sledges and ropes. 

Calculations have shown that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the rollers in front of the sledge.

These stones were arranged in an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels - horizontal supports. 

Inside the circle, five trilithons - structures consisting of two upright stones and a third across the top as a lintel - were placed in a horseshoe arrangement, which can still be seen today. 

Final stage: The fourth and final stage took place just after 1500 years BC, when the smaller bluestones were rearranged in the horseshoe and circle that can be seen today.

The original number of stones in the bluestone circle was probably around 60, but these have since been removed or broken up. Some remain as stumps below ground level.