Heel Stone

The Heelstone is a single large block of sarsen stone standing within the Avenue outside the entrance of the Stonehenge earthwork, close to the main road (Highways Agency A344). Sarsen stone is an Oligocene-Miocene silicified sandstone, found as scattered blocks resting on the Chalk of southern England. In section it is sub-rectangular, with a minimum thickness of 8 ft (2.4m), rising to a tapered top about 16 ft (4.7m) high. Excavation has shown that a further 4 ft (1.2m) is buried in the ground.

Heelstone is an eroded pillar 254 ft (77.4m) from the center of Stonehenge circle. It leans towards the Southwest (pictured view) nearly 27 degrees from the vertical. The stone has an overall girth of 25 ft (7.6m) and weighs about 35 tons. Some 12 ft (3.7m) from its base is a narrow, roughly circular feature called Heelstone Ditch, 4 ft (1.2m) deep and 3.5 ft (1.1m) wide. A large Arc Trench found in 1923 by Lt-Col William Hawley 9 ft (2.7m) wide cuts this ditch from the West, deepening towards the stone.

Myths and legends of the Devil striking a "Friar's Heel" with a stone resulted in its eccentric name, Heel Stone. Some claim "Friar's Heel" is a corruption of "Freyja's He-ol" or "Freyja Sul", from the Nordic goddess Freyja and (allegedly) the Welsh words for "way" and "Sunday" respectively. It is doubtful whether any prehistoric standing stone has experienced as many name changes and interpretations. Only in the past three decades have world scientists used the name Heelstone consistently.

Source

Atkinson, R J C, Stonehenge (Penguin Books, 1956)
Cleal, Walker, & Montague, Stonehenge in its Landscape (London, English Heritage 1995)
Cunliffe, B, & Renfrew, C, Science and Stonehenge (The British Academy 92, Oxford University Press 1997)
Hawley, Lt-Col W, Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1923 (The Antiquaries Journal 5, Oxford University Press, 1925)

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Further reading