Layout and Location - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 159

F IG . 5.17 Viewpoint from the M8 footbridge, looking north (Photo by Frank
O'Neill, May 1978)
At this stage Frank O'Neill, the NALGO shop steward, had
to make his quarterly report to the Director of Parks on the prog-
ress of the various Special Projects. John and I took him up to the
site and to show the location Frank photographed it (and us) as
we went over the M8, illustrating that the footbridge led straight
towards it (Fig. 5.17 ). On the hilltop, I had Frank photograph John
in the position of the central stone, while I took the part first of
the midsummer sunrise marker, then midwinter sunset. Combin-
ing these by the wonders of modern science (Fig. 5.18 ), we had the
basis for an artist's impression.
Gavin Roberts was being increasingly drawn into the proj-
ect, and we now asked the MSC if he could be appointed as our
assistant. He had not been out of college and out of work for the
statutory period (6 months in his case), but once again an excep-
tion was made since there were no other applicants. Meantime
Bill Jones, a draughtsman working under Paul Green and sharing
Paul's increasingly crowded office with us, had produced a prelim-
inary plan of the circle using the perfect theoretical alignments.
This was to use as a reference in the survey and also to show that
we were well clear of the railway tunnel airshaft. Using that and