Archaeoastronomy from the Air - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 275

F IG . 9.17 Viking grave excavations on Ardnave Point, Islay (Photos by
Chris Stanley, 1982)
in capturing a circular hill-fort on Islay that was another of his
requested targets (Fig. 9.18 ).
I took the controls again between Islay and the Mull of Kintyre,
and this time was allowed to cross the coast and make a turn, Les-
lie taking over when we asked permission to overfly Macrihanish
Airport - which as he said must have surprised the radio operator
on such a peaceful summer afternoon. But we couldn't find the
standing stone to the south of it, and instead turned north to meet
the Thoms' request at Pubal Burn, north of Campbeltown.
This time we showed that the camera can sometimes prove
superior to the eye. In 1948 Archie Thom had seen the marks of
a circle in the crops, and subsequently the stump of a stone was
found. He had been trying to get an aerial photograph ever since!
We saw nothing from the air, but when the slide was projected
onto a large screen Christopher Taylor, a young member of ASTRA,
found the faint marks of the former stones' positions (Fig. 9.19 ).
I passed on the photographs to Archie Thom, but the fam-
ily had been struck by tragedy with the death of the grandson,
Alasdair Thom, in a car accident, when the mantle of the family's