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Stone Circles Causing Emotional Sensations (Sorrow, Etc.)

I visited Drumbeg stone circle in Co.Cork on a family holiday a few years ago. Its a spectacular site but I immediately got a sense not to walk near the stones. My mother and family all went around as did other tourists but while I admired and walked around the site I felt compelled to not enter the stone circle.
 
Last week I visited the ring of Brodgar in Orkney. Fantastic setting, truly lovely to look at but not a twinge of anything spiritual apart from a sense of great joy coming from a couple who were there to celebrate their union- seriously they were glowing. But this great beautiful stone circle just stood there basking in our admiration.

I put it down to the number of tourists and the stones being in an enclosure.
 
I remember feeling quite overwhelmed when going to Stonehenge. It wasn't a feeling of sadness, more something like what a Romantic poet would call "an encounter with the sublime". I hadn't expected the stones to be so big and overbearing. This would've been a little over 20 years ago, when I was in my late teens.

I've been to many stone circles and the like over the years, mainly in Ireland. I've never felt the same effect anywhere else that I've had at Stonehenge, in terms of ancient sites. It's usually just a feeling of wistful mystery and loss (like another post described).

The most intense reaction I've had to anything "tourist-y" was seeing Picasso's Guernica in person for the first time. I cried my eyes out at that. Again, like Stonehenge, I went in "unprepared" without much expectation and just found the sheer *size*; of Guernica overwhelming. Maybe that's a clue as to why these ancient sites provoke such reactions in us sometimes.
 
Soul_Doubt said:
I remember feeling quite overwhelmed when going to Stonehenge. It wasn't a feeling of sadness, more something like what a Romantic poet would call "an encounter with the sublime". I hadn't expected the stones to be so big and overbearing. This would've been a little over 20 years ago, when I was in my late teens.

I've been to many stone circles and the like over the years, mainly in Ireland. I've never felt the same effect anywhere else that I've had at Stonehenge, in terms of ancient sites. It's usually just a feeling of wistful mystery and loss (like another post described).

The most intense reaction I've had to anything "tourist-y" was seeing Picasso's Guernica in person for the first time. I cried my eyes out at that. Again, like Stonehenge, I went in "unprepared" without much expectation and just found the sheer *size*; of Guernica overwhelming. Maybe that's a clue as to why these ancient sites provoke such reactions in us sometimes.
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When I saw Guernica a very strict museum guide told us all to stand against the opposite wall so we didn't obscure anyone else's view and that flash photography is strictly forbidden as it can fade the image over time. As we all stood there respectfully a group of about 40 Japanese tourists charged in, talking loudly, took their place right in front of the painting and started taking 100 photos each with flash guns popping. The guide going apeshit trying to stop them.
 
I went to Avebury stone circle when I was very little - I have very odd memories of feeling an "ache" in my hands when I touched the stone - a feeling that I still get sometimes when I experience sudden strong emotions.

I also remember coming away feeling what I can only describe as an "understanding" of death that I hadn't had before - a detached but visceral feeling of finality, loss, and something stretching out into infinity, further than I could ever imagine.

I'm tempted to go back and pay another visit.
 
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