Callanish X

Callanish X was probably built during the Neolithic period, between about 3000 and 2500 BC, when communities across the Isle of Lewis were raising stone monuments across the moor. The site itself has not been excavated or directly dated, but archaeologists place it within this period because it closely resembles other stone settings in the Callanish group. Excavations at the nearby Callanish I stone circle have shown that the landscape was already a place of ritual activity before the stones were erected. Archaeologists uncovered traces of an earlier timber structure along with pottery from Neolithic communities. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the famous stone circle was built later in…

The stones were examined from 2003–2006 in an excavation involving the removal of the covering layer of peat. These excavations revealed that the circle had comprised a ring of 17 stones, of which two are missing and the remaining 15 have fallen over. Hence the stones had been held in place by jamming smaller stones around their bases. This was inadequate to hold them long term, and most of the monoliths had fallen after "several hundred years".