A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany (1995)

Rating:
Summary: A superb guide to the stones of Great Britain and Brittany.
Review: Burl, an expert on the subject of stone circles, has created an essential and portable guide to all of the major sites in Great Britain and Brittany. The sites listed in the book are numbered and keyed to useful maps which offers visitors to a given area the opportunity to avoid missing anything of interest. Each site has a thorough description which often includes interpretations, a "condition code", and practical instructions as to how to find it. Also included is a good index and bibliography, and, for most sites, reference to published literature. This is not a book of photographs or site maps, although there are quite a few of each, especially for the better sites. Rather, this is an exceptional and really practical little guidebook, one anyone headed for the field will certainly want to carry along.

Rating:
Summary: tremendously useful
Review: I picked up this book before a recent trip to the Midlands, and enjoyed it. It helped me find some out of the way sites, and informed me about them. It is entertaining, informative and useful. It's like hiring a friendly guide to lead you. Can't recommend it highly enough!

Rating:
Summary: An essential resource
Review: I recently returned from a vacation over in Ireland/Scotland/Wales where for 4 weeks I and 2 of my friends researched and visited stone circles throughout the Isles. Aubrey Burl definitely has written an essential resource you should pick up if you have the intentions of going to see them. He touches on a great number of "out of the way" stone circles not widely known in areas and gives precise directions on how to get to them. It is almost like a treasure hunt, you never knwo what is around the corner in Aubrey's book! A definite must get for the stone circle enthusiast. Don't even think about putting this book down. Get a map, get this book, and go hunting for these great spiritual centers.

Rating:
Summary: This guide was our companion when roaming Dartmoor last June
Review: My husband and I are very interested in ancient cultures and especially stone circles; this book told us where they were, what to expect to see, and how to get there (which wasn't always very easy!) We were able to pick an area of England with a heavy concentration of good quality circles based on his descriptions and pictures, and with book in hand, see many of the ones we chose. Mr. Burl is kind enough to mention when the going is tough, and he was always right. The only thing that could make this book any more invaluable as a field guide would be inclusion of Surveyor's Maps of the areas...but those can be purchased easily in the countries in question. (Color photos would've been nice, too!) Highly recommended for real trip-planning, or just for inspiration!

Rating:
Summary: This guide was our companion when roaming Dartmoor last June
Review: My husband and I are very interested in ancient cultures and especially stone circles; this book told us where they were, what to expect to see, and how to get there (which wasn't always very easy!) We were able to pick an area of England with a heavy concentration of good quality circles based on his descriptions and pictures, and with book in hand, see many of the ones we chose. Mr. Burl is kind enough to mention when the going is tough, and he was always right. The only thing that could make this book any more invaluable as a field guide would be inclusion of Surveyor's Maps of the areas...but those can be purchased easily in the countries in question. (Color photos would've been nice, too!) Highly recommended for real trip-planning, or just for inspiration!

Rating:
Summary: Indispensible to understanding what you see
Review: This very informative guidebook will bring to life your understanding of what otherwise might appear to be some big rocks in a field. I recently viewed a very important megalithic site, Stanton Drew, without this book. Even though I am somewhat well-read in this area, the site really was uninterpretable on its own. When I read the commentary in this book, my experience of the site changed and I was able to peer back through the millenia to see the site as the builders would have. This book is indispensible.