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Famous Stonehenge stone came from Scotland not Wales

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Dawn Pummintr/BBC

The six-tonne Altar Stone at the heart of Stonehenge came from the far north of Scotland rather than south-west Wales as previously thought, new analysis has found.

The discovery shows the construction of Stonehenge was a far greater collaborative effort than scientists realised.

It also means that the ancient monument, near Salisbury in south-west England, was built with stones from all parts of Great Britain.

The findings suggest Neolithic Britain was a far more connected and advanced society than earlier evidence indicated.

The distance between Stonehenge and the far north of Scotland is about 700km (434 miles).

The research was led by a Welsh PhD student, Anthony Clarke, now working at Curtin University in Western Australia.

Such is the importance of the discovery that it has been published in one of the world’s leading scientific journals, Nature, which is an enormous achievement for an apprentice researcher.

But it is a bittersweet moment for the young Welshman, who was born in Pembrokeshire, where the Altar Stone was until now thought to have come from.

“I don’t think I’ll be forgiven by people back home,” he joked to BBC News. “It will be a great loss for Wales!”

But Mr Clarke points out that the remaining stones in the central horseshoe, which are known as bluestones, are from Wales and the larger stones in the outer circle are from England.

“We’ve got to give the Scots something!” he said.

“But on a serious note, Stonehenge seems to be this great British endeavour involving all the different people from all over the island,” he said.

The bluestones at Stonehenge were identified as coming from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire in 1923,

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