Stonehenge came 'second hand' from older Welsh circle, study suggests

Prehistoric site linked with remains found at Waun Mawn in Wales

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  Stonehenge, whose stones may have originally stood in a Welsh circle, according to a new theory. Getty Images

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  The Ring of Brodgar (alternate spelling Brogar) Neolithic standing stone circle and henge, in Stenness, Scotland. The standing stones date to approximately 2,000-2,500 BC and are one of the most important Neolithic sites in the Orkney. The circle the stones form is 130metres in diameter. Getty Images

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  This dazzling and beautifully preserved stone circle is two miles up Swinside Farm track on private farmland. A sign advises visitors to leave their cars and walk. Getty Images

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  Nine Ladies Stone Circle, Stanton Moor, Derbyshire, England. Rex Features

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  Visitors walk besides the Neolithic stones at Avebury in Wiltshire, England. A leading travel magazine has recently named the collection of stones - thought to have been constructed around 2600BC and the largest stone circle in Europe, as the second best heritage site in the world. The Wiltshire world heritage site has been placed ahead of much more recognisable sites including the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, Taj Mahal in India and the Forbidden City in China. Getty Images

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  Clava Cairns, circular chamber tomb cairn from the Bronze Age, Balnuaran of Clava, Scotland, United Kingdom. Getty Images

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  Blencathra Mountain, which is up for sale, overlooks the Neolithic stone circle of Castlerigg in Keswick, United Kingdom. The Earl of Lonsdale, Hugh Lowther, has put Blencathra up for sale for 1.75M GBP to try and pay off an inheritance tax bill. Local community groups are now using social media to campaign and raise money to buy the 2,850ft (869m) mountain and keep it in British ownership. Getty Images

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  Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, England. Getty Images

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  Drombeg Stone Circle, County Cork, Ireland. Rex Features

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  A stone circle at Machrie Moor on the isle of Arran. Getty Images

Remains of an ancient monument in west Wales indicate stones that stood at the site may have been dismantled and used to build the Neolithic standing circle Stonehenge, a study says.

Researchers believe some stones used at Stonehenge, near Salisbury in south-west England, were used in an earlier monument 280 kilometres away in south-west Wales.

The team from University College London behind the discovery said there were elements linking Stonehenge, built in 3000 BC, with the earlier stone circle named Waun Mawn.

They suggest bluestones – distinct blue and grey stones that originated in Wales – may have been moved by the ancient builders of Stonehenge as their society migrated.

The findings, to be published in the journal Antiquity, would explain why the monoliths were moved so far, when most similar standing circles from the time were built close to their quarries.

Waun Mawn is one of the oldest stone circles in Britain and the country's third largest.

Its surrounding region was an important and densely settled area until 3000 BC, when activity seems to have abruptly ended.

"It's as if they just vanished. Maybe most of the people migrated, taking their stones – their ancestral identities – with them," UCL archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson said.

With an estimated 80 bluestones erected on Salisbury Plain, it is likely that Waun Mawn, in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, was not the only monument recycled at Stonehenge, he added.

"Maybe there are more in Preseli waiting to be found. Who knows? Someone will be lucky enough to find them," he said.

Scientific dating of charcoal and sediment from the holes where stones stood at the Welsh site reveal it was erected roughly 400 years before Stonehenge, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.

There are also indications the builders of Stonehenge copied the monument in Wales.

Waun Mawn has a diameter of 110 metres – the same as the ditch that encloses Stonehenge – and both are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise.