IN comparing the technology of the arch to the lintel, the once-renowned architect Alexander Greek Thomson provocatively argued that Stonehenge was more scientifically constructed than York Minster. Thomson's works are now treated with ignominy but thousands of years of our island story can be experienced on the streets of Glasgow by drawing a mysterious horizontal line all the way back from his Victorian masterpieces to those huge monoliths near Salisbury plain. A number of years ago I had the privilege of witnessing the winter solstice at Stonehenge.
The space was filled with old and new-age hippies, all of them decked out in their gaudy, ill-fitting finery. Some danced to the lutes that were playing a pastiche of medieval music , and some just lay on their back looking at heaven knows what. Irrespective of the kitsch, clichéd paganism, standing in that ring of stones waiting for the winter light was a profound experience.
The news that the monument has been desecrated by Just Stop Oil activists has not endeared me to their cause ( "Just Stop Oil activists bailed after Stonehenge sprayed with orange paint", heraldscotland, June 20 ). Just Stop Oil and their ilk are not friendly, partying pagans, they are malevolent extremists who are evidently determined to break, ruin and destroy our culture. From book festivals to artworks and, now, to our ancient monuments, nothing can be considered safe or sacred.
Sadly, the governing progressives, who should have proscribed these org.