Operation Megalithic Lift - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 185

F IG . 7.1 An unsuccessful survey. Note the bush in the nor-nor-west, bend-
ing over in the wind
matter. We couldn't hope to run the calculation backwards and
match the accuracy of the prehistoric sites, without foresights
such as notches or peaks on the distant horizon. But with good
enough bearings taken, we could solve the problem graphically to
within a degree.
John Braithwaite had arranged the use of a theodolite - old,
temperamental, but still good enough for the standard of accuracy
we acquired. In October 1978, however, soon after the stones had
been deposited at Ruchill, the weather took a major turn for the
worse. Even on the days when the skyline was clear, high winds
made the theodolite virtually unusable (Fig. 7.1 ), and the wind
chill fogged our brains so that when we did get a set of bearings
and retreated to the office to warm up, the results was so inconsis-
tent as to be meaningless.
After our first two unsuccessful sessions we called on the Parks
“1,001 Project” survey team for help, and by January we had made
several unsuccessful visits to the hilltop with them. During this
time our respect for Thom's achievements increased a great deal.
The site was still waste ground, and word spread around the Parks
Department that you could tell when the Astronomy Project had
been to the hilltop (and afterwards, whether we'd been to the toilet,