# Clarke 2026: From Highlands to Henge: Refining the Provenance and Transport Pathways of Stonehenge's Altar Stone

> Anthony J. I. Clarke, Remy L. J. Veness, Christopher L. Kirkland et al., 2026. 9 records on Mysteries Department cite it. Cited for the glacially…

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# From Highlands to Henge: Refining the Provenance and Transport Pathways of Stonehenge's Altar Stone

Anthony J. I. Clarke, Remy L. J. Veness, Christopher L. Kirkland et al., 2026. _Journal of Quaternary Science_.

Provenance analysis with ice-flow modelling. Caithness sandstones match the Altar Stone's zircon ages best, but ice from there flowed mostly north-east, with one path towards Dogger Bank; that would cut the human haul from 700 to 400 km, yet Dogger Bank was under the sea before the stone arrived. Ice alone cannot have brought it.

**Stonehenge** Articledoi: **[10.1002/jqs.70080](https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70080)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

Cited for the glacially assisted route and its limits.

## Cited by on this site 9 records

[Ice carried the stone south-east towards Dogger Bank and people hauled it the remaining 400 km.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/answers/ANS0CRWPSBJ7VRQ/ice-carried-the-stone-south-east-towards-dogger-bank-and)

Answer

ANS

[Caithness sandstones give the closest match to the stone's zircon age spectrum; candidate areas farther south…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPKG22MWJ/caithness-sandstones-give-the-closest-match-to-the-stones)

Evidence

EVD

[Dogger Bank was drowned by post-glacial sea-level rise before the stone likely reached Stonehenge.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPSV61YY8/dogger-bank-was-drowned-by-post-glacial-sea-level-rise)

Evidence

EVD

[Ice from Caithness flowed mostly north-east; glacial transport alone cannot account for the stone's arrival.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPTAT4TF0/ice-from-caithness-flowed-mostly-north-east-glacial)

Evidence

EVD

[Ice modelling gives a localised south-eastward path from Caithness towards Dogger Bank.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPSKC65DG/ice-modelling-gives-a-localised-south-eastward-path-from)

Evidence

EVD

[No archaeological trace of the voyage exists.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPRM45V6T/no-archaeological-trace-of-the-voyage-exists)

Evidence

EVD

[No trace of an overland haul has been reported.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/evidence/EVD0CRWPS3R74R0/no-trace-of-an-overland-haul-has-been-reported)

Evidence

EVD

[Stonehenge](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge)

The mystery article

MYS

[How did the Altar Stone travel some 700 km from north-east Scotland?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/stonehenge/questions/QST0CRWPFTW17XZ/how-did-the-altar-stone-travel-some-700-km-from-north-east)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Clarke, A. J. I., Veness, R. L. J., Kirkland, C. L., Clark, C. D., Gandy, N., Emery, A., Bradley, S. L., Ely, J. C., & Ignéczi, Á. (2026). From Highlands to Henge: Refining the Provenance and Transport Pathways of Stonehenge's Altar Stone. Journal of Quaternary Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70080
```

[Read it free at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70080)

Key

**SRC** 0CRWP6J05WJK

Kind

Journal article

Rights

CC-BY-4.0

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS.

[CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0CRWP6J05WJK/from-highlands-to-henge-refining-the-provenance-and/csl.json)