Inspiration
The Calanais Stones - Inspiring
Callanish Jewellery – Inspired
The Standing Stones of Calanais on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides are among the grandest megalithic sites in the world. The stones have endured long, built over five thousand years ago using Lewisian Gneiss, the oldest rock in the world. The motives of the Megalithic Culture that created the stones may never be clear, but that they had a detailed framework of geometry, astronomy, religion, art and medicine is certain. The shapes, chosen for aesthetic or magical reasons, favour stones with crystalline nodules and the alignment of the stones allows the predication of certain lunar and solar cycles. Some legends surrounding Callanish suggest that the stones were once Pagan giants, others that at Midsummer sunrise a cuckoo heralds the ascension up the stone avenue of the mysterious ‘Shining One’. An old tradition of Beltane, when all fires were extinguished, tells of an old Priest who would produce fire from a nearby tree and redistribute it from within the circle.The standing stones inspired our ancestors and they inspire us still with their grandeur. Callanish Jewellery as taken inspiration from the stones and their beauty and grandeur is captured in this range of solid forged silver jewellery. 