240 miles separate Stonehenge and Pembrokeshire, but the two places are strongly linked. The connection is that many of the stones at the world's most famous megalithic site can be traced to the Preseli hills of Pembrokeshire.
This question is intriguing. Some people believe that the stones at Stonehenge were formed from large "erratics", boulders transported two-thirds of the way by the Ice sheet that reached the Bristol area during the last Ice Age and thenceforward taken by land. The more entertaining story (and the one that English Heritage's Wiltshire officer believes) is that they were moved the whole distance by man.
Well you'd have thought so. But bronze-age man clearly had a discerning eye, and decided that the rocks found in a small area 350 metres above sea level between Foel Drygan (SN 163335), Carn Menyn (SN 143325), and Carn Alw (SN139338) were what was needed. And with some justification - Preseli stone (dolerite, rhyolite and altered volcanic ash) is hard and durable. How it probably went was that some time between 1700-1600 B.C., Beaker folk, familiar with the south coast of Wales on their way to trading with Ireland, either came across a local stone circle which they cannibalised, or spotted the potential of large rock debris and arranged its removal.
Yes, particularly when you consider that each stone weighs between 4 and 7 tons, and over 80 stones made the journey. To do this they probably used rafts, a) to access shallow waters as close as possible to the site and b) for the sea journey. For the overland journey the probably switched to rollers, laboriously placed under the stones as they were moved along. While the feasibility of doing this was demonstrated for a TV programme in 1954 it must have taken many people a lot of time. And it is suspected that the process didn't go entirely to plan. It is believed that one of the stones was dropped into the water at Milford Haven, and the altar stone used at Stonehenge was instead dug from a Cosherston Beds sandstone quarry near Pembroke as a replacement.
