Ultrasonic chatter - key to mystery of the stones

By Don Lavery - Evening Press Thursday, June 30, 1983

Prehistoric stone sites in Ireland are sending out mysterious ultrasonic signals which can't be explained by scientists. This is the startling claim made by a group of British scientists, researchers, mystics and investigators who have been studying prehistoric stone circles in England and Wales for the last six years.

The group has found that the stones talk in an ultrasonic chatter and show high levels of radiation but as yet they have no explanation for the phenomenon.

"We examined about six sites in Ireland, including the Boyne valley and Newgrange, and had the same findings as the sites in Britain", said Don Ribins, an archaeologist and chemist who was scientific adviser to the group.


"There has always been a mystery associated with the circles and now there's even greater mystery. At this stage we don't want to draw any conclusions lest we be accused of talking about little green men and the like."

The group has found that the prehistoric stones emit a strange ultrasonic clicking noise. For their inquiries in England they chose the Rollrights in Oxfordshire, a ring of limestone with a dolmen.

They gathered at the rocks just before dawn and nothing happened for a time. Then, said Robins, half an hour before sunrise the stones began to emit a regular signal which continued through the dawn and gradually faded as the sun climbed into the sky.

The Geiger counters used by the group also showed strange levels of radioactivity. In further experiments they found that the stones alone were responsible for the sound. Their monitors showed complete ultrasonic silence within the stone circle. A cone of silence inside with normal back ground noise levels outside the circle.

"What we are now trying to do is move on to the next stage of the project and find out if this is a phenomenon. There are too many people willing to speculate on our findings", said Don Robins, at his home in Middlesex last night.

"There is scope for a lot more work. All I can say is that there is something very special about these sites."

He said there had been scepticism from the scientific establishment but generally the reception had been good. He said the group had not paid as much attention to Ireland as they wished. The project is running short of money and if the group, who call themselves the Dragon Project got some funding, they can go on to the next stage of their experiments.

"We would be extremely interested in Ireland. We haven't met any of the scientific establishment there yet but this could happen as the project develops."

Mr Robins has already written a report of the groups findings for the prestigious English magazine 'New Scientist'.

"There are a lot of different theories about the stones but we don't give them much credence", said Mr. Peter Danaher an archaeologist with the Office of Public Works.

He said he hadn't seen the report by the British group but in many cases radiation could be given off by stones used in the circles.

He said he would be sceptical of the claims made by the British group, and as far as he knew, no testing had been done on Irish prehistoric stones for radiation or ultrasonic sound by "genuine archaeologists."

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