Viewed from the area above the surrounding plain from which the royalty and hosting families once watched the Lughnassad games, features on adjoining Grange Hill are fairly easy to pick out.To the far right is the grove which hides three adjacent, touching rings... from bottom up almost to the highest elevation, below where the bull is standing. To the right... under and to the right of where the corbies are wheeling in the sky, is the "down"-cursus... two parallel lines of stones to shepherd pageant participants safely back to lower ground after the community's ritual sunrise observations in late April... in which thousands took part.In the centre is the high point of the ridge on Grange Hill where participants first see the sun rise, after climbing with hundreds (if not thousands) of others in the cursus from the far side.Adjacent to that high point are foundations remaining from the huts of whomever were responsible for maintaining the grounds and preparing for the group rituals.Closer to us are stone bluffs which acted as a backdrop for the ceremonies, some of which may have been acted out on a natural "stage" near the centre ridge... which has been built-up with stone. A secret entrance up to that "stage" comes up through a cleft in that bluff, allowing players and ritual managers to arrive and leave the scene without disturbing the public.And lastly - at the bottom of the meadow sloping down to the right, near the edge of the woods, is a pit which was once fenced - and in which a bull was likely slaughtered to "bring in" the summer-time sun with all her warmth and glory... and marking the end of the winter-time sun's reign.
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