Egersund is a small town in Norway about one hour’s drive southeast of Stavanger, on the road (E39) to Kristiansand. It’s famous for Stoplesteinane, or the standing stone circle similar to Stonehenge in England. The stones are not far from the city centre, located behind residential houses in the suburb of Skårabrekkå.
They consist of 16 stones with a circle diameter of 21 metres. It is thought that these stones don’t mark any kind of grave but rather the location of a gathering place for local Viking chiefs, or Ting (council) as it is called in Norwegian. But it hasn’t been ruled out that the original location could have been a place of burial during the Iron Age as burned remains have been found under the stones, indicating cremation - something that Snorre Sturloson wrote about in the Heimskringla.
Nobody today really knows why they were erected or even how. The St Olaf’s path goes right by the stone circle linking Egersund to Sokndal.
Categories:
sacred-places
Tags:
stone circle,
megaliths,
Egersund,
Norway