How Did Stonehenge Get Its Altar Stone? New Research Adds to the Debate Between Human Effort and Glacier Transport

Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it’s possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the last Ice Age. However, scientists say that scenario is unlikely

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

June 8, 2026 6:33 p.m.

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In 2024, researchers determined that Stonehenge’s altar stone originated in northeast Scotland, some 450 miles away from the site of the iconic monument in southern England. Now, they say they are one step closer to understanding how the massive rock got there.

Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it’s possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the last Ice Age. However, that scenario is unlikely, researchers report in a new paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. Rather than being moved naturally by ice, they suspect the stone was hauled by Neolithic communities over land and water.

Stonehenge was erected in stages between 3000 B.C.E. and 1520 B.C.E. Researchers thinkbelieve the more than 13,0200-pound, 16-foot-long altar stone was added between 2620 and 2480 B.C.E. Today, the rock is partially buried and tucked beneath two other stones.

For years, scientists thought the altar stone had come from Wales, just like the other smaller stones, known as bluestones, that make up the monument. But, after analyzing the sandstone boulder’s chemical makeup, they recently deduced it instead came from the Orcadian Basin of northeast Scotland.

But that discovery raised new questions. The big one: How did such a hulking rock cover a distance of more than 450 miles? Researchers initially theorized that it might have been moved by boat. But they also wondered whether ice might have played a role, potentially shortening the distance Neolithic humans had to transport the stone.

To test that idea, scientists reconstructed ice movements during the last glacial period. They didn’t find evidence of a direct glacial route from northeast Scotland to southern England. And their analysis revealed that most glaciers originating in northeast Scotland headed in a northeastern direction, away from Stonehenge. But some did travel southeast and may have transported rocks as far as Dogger Bank, roughly 250 miles from Stonehenge.

Today, Dogger Bank is submerged beneath the North Sea off the east coast of England. But during the last glacial period, it was high and dry—part of a land bridge between Britain and mainland Europe.

Study details epic transportation of Stonehenge stone across ancient Britain

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Rising sea levels due to melting ice at the end of the last Ice Age had covered Dogger Bank by roughly 8,000 years ago, approximately 3,000 years before the start of construction at Stonehenge. So, in order for the glacier transport theory to pan out, humans must have first moved the rock from Dogger Bank before the site became submerged. Then, they must have transported the rock to at least one location that remained above sea level for thousands of years, before finally taking it to Stonehenge.

“Such a scenario requires prolonged cultural significance or multiple-phase activity, across an exceptionally large temporal gap,” the researchers write in the paper. “The need to invoke such a long, multi-stage chain of events challenges the plausibility of Dogger Bank as an intermediate source and correspondingly, therefore, of a Late Devensian glacially derived pathway for the Altar Stone.”

The researchers say their study cannot completely rule out glacial transport of the altar stone. However, in order for this scenario to be true, it would have required an “increasingly elaborate set of circumstances,” Anthony Clarke, study co-author and a geochemist at Curtin University, tells NewScientist’s James Woodford.

Instead, the researchers suspect the altar stone was moved by Neolithic communities. They probably worked in stages, hauling the rock over land for some parts of the journey and shipping it by boat—either on rivers or along the coast—for others.

“Rather than being carried naturally by ice, the evidence points to a deliberate, carefully planned movement across a challenging and varied landscape,” Clarke says in a statement. “Transporting a stone of this size over such a long distance would have required planning, coordination and a deep understanding of the landscape—not to mention tremendous determination.”

Given the likely long and arduous journey, why did Neolithic humans select a stone from so far away? Their reasoning remains unclear. And, unless researchers figure out a way to travel back in time, they may never be able to fully answer that question.

“Why do we select marble from Italy for our kitchens?” Clarke tells NewScientist. “Why do we select certain gemstones to wear around our necks? Humans have always had a fascination with finding the right rock and, for whatever reason, [the builders of Stonehenge] needed sandstone from northeast Scotland for their monument in England.”

Though the researchers believe glacier transport is not the most likely scenario, it’s still interesting to consider the idea that the construction of Stonehenge “might have started as a result of climate-induced migration,” co-author Remy Veness, a glaciologist at Sheffield Hallam University, tells BBC News’ Chloe Harcombe. Perhaps the people who lived at Dogger Bank had attached “cultural significance” to the altar stone—and were indeed willing to save it from rising seas, Veness says in a statement.

However the altar stone traveled, the findings suggest Stonehenge’s builders were probably more organized and cooperative than previously thought. Either way, they were capable “not merely of moving stone but also coordinating complex, large-scale acts of monument construction across extensive geographic ranges,” the researchers write in the paper.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.