SCIENTISTS think they may have found the exact location in the Preseli Hills where the Bluestones at Stonehenge may have been quarried from.

An article in the scientific journal Antiquity by a team of geologists and archaeologists says the stones which make up an outer circle at the world-famous ancient monument are likely to have come from two quarries high in the Preselis.

Mike Parker Pearson, archaeology professor at University College London, said: “What’s really exciting about these discoveries is that they take us a step closer to unlocking Stonehenge’s greatest mystery – why its stones came from so far away.”

Surveys of quarries, Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, have revealed excavation work took place at approximately 3,000 BC, near to the time when the first stage of building began at Stonehenge.

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The article says the bluestones, also known as spotted dolerite, were once thought to have come from Carn Menyn quarry, but chemical analysis has shown the megaliths at Stonehenge better match the rocks of Carn Goedog.

Western Telegraph:

The new research also casts doubt on the theory the stones were transported to Wiltshire by sea after being hauled to Milford Haven.

The article says the entrances to both quarries suggests the stones were hauled across the hilltops eastward, instead of south towards the sea.

It adds the megaliths may have been part of a local stone circle before being dug up and moved to Stonehenge.

The new research suggests that a previously snubbed claim of a stone circle at a place called Waun Mawn on the north side of the Preselis may have some truth to it, and could lead to an investigation of the partial stone circle which remains there in the future.

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The Preseli quarries are approximately 180 miles away from Stonehenge, which sits in the middle of a network of prehistoric monuments in Wiltshire.