Dating

Later MBA field boundary leading across the double stone row at Hurston Ridge.

An article on the dating of stone rows is now available on this website here.

There is a consensus that stone rows were built from the end of the Neolithic, but that most were erected in the Early Bronze Age (EBA) whilst a few stragglers made late appearances in the Middle Bronze Age. The evidence to support this chronology is far from reliable, is often circumstantial at best, but is generally consistent and it is currently all we have to work with.

Possible chronological context of individual rows. Single rows are shown blue, double rows green and triple/multiple rows orange. Click on image to open a larger version.

Cumulative, but largely circumstantial evidence suggests that the stone rows in Great Britain were probably built from the very Early Bronze Age until the end of the Middle Bronze Age.  Most are likely to have been built and used between 2600 and 1900 BC, although some especially on Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and Argyll and Isles were being built well into the MBA. The rows in Northern Scotland may have been built in the Late Neolithic and abandoned before the MBA, whilst most of the rows in Argyll and the Isles may have been built in the MBA.